


In the Stacks

by lawsomeantics38



Series: Enterprise University [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-06-22 18:48:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15588378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lawsomeantics38/pseuds/lawsomeantics38
Summary: AU where the members of the Starship Enterprise crew are academics. Less Klingons and Romulans but about the same amount of drama and bloodshed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note:  
> This is pure fluff (with a side of angst because, dammit, I can’t help myself). I’m dedicating this one to all the librarians out there because y’all make the world go round. Updates will be once a week though things will be dicey in August and I cannot promise I’ll have internet access each week while I’m traveling. So don’t be worried if you don’t get an update – they’re coming! I think this will end up being a series I’ll return to after I get done with bigger stories. As always, I love to hear your thoughts on the story/characters/favorite foods/world peace – whatever you want to share. Enjoy!

Whatever Leonard McCoy was expecting, this is not it. When he decided to hunt down Ariadne Demopoulos, he expected to find….well, not this. Everything about it throws him off – the warm, eclectic office is decorated with a mix of art from around the world, a Moroccan rug on the floor with a beat-up yet comfy-looking overstuffed chair and ottoman in the corner and a bright yellow cart behind the desk, overflowing with books. Next to the cart is an equally bold yellow footstool – like the ones found in libraries everywhere but Leonard is pretty sure he’s never seen a yellow one before. On top of the stool is a potted plant – there are plants all over the office, actually. The whole office feels more like a room in someone’s house. He looks at the various images she has tacked up on her bulletin board – the frame is lined with postcards of various works of art but the center of the board includes ACLU bumper stickers, Shepard Fairey’s “We the People” prints and handwritten quotes of from various works of fiction. She watches his eyes rove over the bulletin board.

“Normally, I go to the professor’s office if we’re gonna meet,” Aerie tells him and when he looks at her quizzically, she sighs and adds, gesturing to her bulletin board, “Wouldn’t want anyone thinking the librarians have opinions.” She rolls her eyes.

“You aren’t serious, are you?” he asks gruffly. “Librarians are faculty, after all.” McCoy has never sat through a faculty meeting that was any less than at least 75% opinions being spoken loudly.

“Were,” she corrects him. “We _were_ faculty until last year. Now we’re academic administrative professionals.”

“And that somehow means y’all don’t get to have opinions?” he rumbles.

“We’re expected to answer all research requests and no one should know what side we’re on when they ask a question. It’s best if we appear to have the trappings of neutrality,” she answers, her lips a tight line.

“That’s a bunch of bullshit,” he scoffs. “Surely you can take stands on the things that matter.” He points, lamely, at her bulletin board.

“Doctor McCoy, what can I help you with?” she asks, abruptly changing the subject.

Of all the jarring elements to this sudden romp across campus and into the library, none is more disconcerting than the woman raising her eyebrow at him. She is tall – at least his height, maybe taller. Huge, brown eyes, olive skin…and a cascade of brilliant blue hair. So much hair. It’s long and thick and hangs straight down her back. He has no idea how she’s managed to dye it a sky blue but before he can speculate, McCoy realizes she is still waiting on his answer.

“I came by because I wasn’t sure you got the project I emailed you about yesterday,” he replies, feeling defensive for some unknown reason.

“You mean the one I just emailed back to you, with all the articles you requested?” she shoots back with a raised eyebrow.

McCoy looks down at his phone, tapping on the email app. Sure enough, there’s her response. She’d sent it while he was getting lost in the library, trying to find her god-forsaken office.

“You know, normally you’re pretty prompt about emailing me when I send you a request,” he starts, his voice a touch more stern than he’d meant it.

“I had a last-minute…thing…to take care of yesterday,” she hedges, looking away from him. “But you have what you need, in the time allotted, just as you asked,” she continues defiantly. She’ll be damned if she’s gonna tell him that despite getting pulled out of work mid-way through the day yesterday to attend her father’s death in a hospice, she’s still managed to finish his damn project because she came back, at 3am, and did the research straight through until she’d sent it all off to him moments before he barged into her office.

“If that’s all…” she trails off, looking pointedly from McCoy to the door.

But McCoy isn’t leaving that easily. He isn’t sure why he feels so reluctant to leave – while the office is cozy and inviting, the woman standing across the desk from him has been anything but. He supposes some of that is his fault – he’d startled her, just showing up and knocking on the open door. She’d been listening to something with her headphones, her eyes glued to the computer monitors in front of her and when she’d finally seen him, she’d jumped out of her chair and remained standing since.

“May I?” He gestures to the seat next to him.

“Of course,” she replies and he’s damn sure it took a great deal of effort and patience for her to get the words out of her mouth.

Aerie is normally a pretty friendly librarian, especially with her faculty liaisons. But she has two simple rules and both are being broken by the man in front of her: first, no meetings before 9am; it’s barely 8am. Second, no unexpected office visits. She would never show up announced at a faculty member’s office so why shouldn’t she expect the same courtesy from them? It’s bad enough getting students to respect boundaries but this is too much, especially after a sleepless night.

“I’m sorry I surprised you,” he says as she sinks uneasily back into her own chair. She closes her eyes for a moment, knowing they must be red from lack of sleep because they sting and closing them only does so much to alleviate the burn. When he finally leaves, she can put some drops in them.

“You know, we have these things called phones,” Aerie responds, opening her eyes and nodding to her own office phone. “They save us from having to trek across campus for no good reason.”

“Well, I hate phones,” McCoy grumbles. “And who said this visit was for nothing? All this time you’ve been doing research for me and I shoulda set up a meeting at some point along the way.”

“But you waited till you thought I’d forgotten something you needed,” she says coolly.

He looks back at her bulletin board and a tiny cross-stitch hoop catches his eye. ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’ is embroidered in it, with delicate flowers surrounding the words. He wonders if she dislikes all men or if it’s just him in particular. Not that it’s hard to understand if she hates all of them right now. Men aren’t exactly making a good name for themselves these days.

“You’re not really what I expected,” he tells her, shifting his eyes over from the bulletin board to her face.

“Oh? Tell me, what did you expect?” There’s just a hint of a smile and McCoy can’t tell if it’s because she’s looking forward to eviscerating him once he confesses what he thought he was going to find or if she might just be letting some of that impenetrable guard down.

“Honestly?” he asks, rubbing the back of his neck. Maybe this has been a huge mistake, taking a seat in her office. Her dark eyes shine and he can’t help but think of a cobra, ready to strike. But her nod prompts him to keep going.

“Well, I thought you’d be a nice, little, old lady,” he finally admits. She says nothing for a moment, looking at him in surprise. Finally a laugh pours out of her – the kind that starts in the belly and works its way up.

“Why?” she asks between peals of laughter.

“I don’t know. Maybe ‘cause your name sounds like something from my grandmother’s generation…”

She snorts at that – not a delicate sound but a full-on snort. “You’re one to talk, Leonard Horatio McCoy.”

He turns red and if not for the smile on her lips, and the sparkle in her eyes, he’d be tempted to huff his way out of her office. He guesses she’s read enough of his work to know his full name. Still…

“Point taken,” he grumbles. “But also, you’re a librarian. I thought all librarians were old ladies with cats,” he argues.

She laughs again and he decides he likes how robust the sound is. He imagines she’s someone who lives life fully when she isn’t stuck in the library.

“We have plenty of old ladies around here,” she assures him. “But some of us are young ladies with cats. There are even a couple of men with cats, and then a handful of librarians without any pets – they haven’t gotten the memo yet.”

She sits back and looks at him, a long gaze that she doesn’t bother hiding. He wonders what’s going on in that head of hers.

“You think Aerie is an old lady’s name?” she asks him, with a shake of her head.

“Well, no – I thought you went by Aerie as some sort of nod to your hippy youth,” he admits with a shrug and she giggles.

“Not a hippy, obviously,” she replies. “Just the daughter of Greek immigrants. Ariadne is a ridiculous name so I shortened it to something only slightly less ludicrous.”

To be honest, McCoy hasn’t really paid attention to how she signs her emails. He’s always thought of her as Ariadne because that’s the name that auto-fills when he types in her email address. All this time, she’s been assisting him and he’s been missing out on getting to know this blue-haired amazon.

“Look, I shoulda called or emailed before stormin’ in on ya,” he says to her, his accent getting thicker because he’s embarrassed. “I’m sorry I haven’t been more hospitable to ya. I shoulda invited you over to my office a long time ago.”

“Don’t worry,” she answers with a wave of her hand. His accent is music to her ears and even while she feels a little bad for giving him a hard time, she enjoys listening to him. “You think I actually meet even half of the faculty I act as library liaison for?”

“So we’re all equally rude to you?” he asks with a raised eyebrow and Aerie is a little jealous because she’s pretty sure her eyebrow doesn’t look nearly as impressive when she raises it.

“Depends,” she muses. “If I get a project to a faculty member in a timely manner, maybe I’ll get a thank you. If it’s a last-minute project and they have the sense to realize what kind of Herculean effort they’re asking of me, maybe they’ll be extra nice. But I didn’t become a librarian for the warm relationships with my patrons.”

“Why did you then?” he asks, legitimately curious as to how this woman, who seems to vibrate with energy, ended up working in a building where conversations are regularly shushed.

She pauses before answering and he sees a flicker of something in her eyes.

“At the time, I was young and naïve and believed I would actually make a difference,” she finally mutters.

“And you’re not young now?” he asks with a mix of grumpiness and…is it flirtatiousness? Aerie isn’t sure. Frankly, she can’t understand why he’s still in her office after she’d practically taken his head off for scaring the shit out of her.

“Younger. I was younger. It’s not like I’m a student,” she says with narrowed eyes, studying his reaction.

She’s caught him. He had absolutely been sure, when he found her sitting there, that she was a student research assistant and the actual Ariadne was elsewhere.

“I knew it!” she crows. “You thought I was a student! Was it the hair? No one expects a woman in her 30s to have smurf hair.”

“Maybe it was the hair. Or maybe the lack of cat fur on you,” he responds, unable to keep from smiling when she beams at him like that. “You’re in your 30s then?” he asks casually, noticing she doesn’t have anything that looks like a wedding ring on either hand.

“Yes, Doctor. I’m not that much younger than you,” she says slyly. So, she knows how old he is. And come to think of it, she had known immediately who he was. Granted, he’d startled her, but the first thing out of her mouth had been something along the lines of, “What the hell are you doing, Doctor McCoy? Go around scaring people like that and you’ll wind up with a black eye.”

“How did you know who I was?” he interrogates her, his eyebrow arched so high, she wonders if it might make a break for it and leave his forehead altogether.

“Unlike you and the rest of the faculty, I make it my priority to put names with faces. I know where your office is, who your student assistants are, and what your phone extension is. And before you think I’m a wizard, all that info is housed on the same webpage, complete with a picture of you.”

After typing briefly, she spins one of her monitors around to show him his faculty page.

“Alright, alright. I get it. Faculty suck and you librarians are the only things keeping this place afloat.”

“Well, thank you, Doctor. That wasn’t so hard to admit, was it?” She smiles at him and then looks at her watch. “This has been fun, getting the crap scared out of me first thing in the morning, but I have a class to teach soon so if you wouldn’t mind giving me time to prep…”

“You teach?” he asks, standing and making his way to the door. She gets up and moves with him.

“Yes. Just a class on research for entering freshmen. But it keeps me busy.”

He furrows his brow. “You must be pretty good at it,” he comments. “Not a lot of librarians get to teach.”

“I’m not bad,” she admits, and it’s an understatement, as the numerous glowing student evaluations can attest to. Aerie has missed her true calling in life – being a teacher. But she’s managed to find a way to teaching, even if her method is a bit unorthodox. “It’s something I enjoy doing and it’s part of why I was hired to begin with – to create a teaching program for the reference librarians to participate in.”

He wrinkles his brow at her and it dawns on him as he looks at the nameplate on her desk. “You’re the assistant director of the library. Why am I one of your faculty members?” He’s surprised to realize someone so high up on the chain is dealing with research requests.

She smiles as he steps out of her way and, consequently, out of the office.

“Because no one else wanted to deal with you, ya old grump,” she says with no small amount of affection before shutting the door on him.

McCoy stands there for a moment. He can’t think of the last time a woman, besides his ex-wife, shut a door in his face. And even stranger, he doesn’t mind it at all. In the back of his mind, he knows this isn’t the last he’ll see of Ariadne Demopoulos.


	2. Chapter 2

"Mom, there's not gonna be a funeral. Dad wanted to be cremated and he wasn't interested in any pomp. All I'm asking is that you think about coming down here and sorting through some of the boxes – I'm sure there's stuff you want," Aerie pleads, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice.

"Κανακάρα μου, you know I hate flying. Besides, there's nothing your father held onto this long that I would still be interested in," her mom sniffs, somehow simultaneously making Aerie feel guilty for asking for her help and enraged that her mom is still pulling the whole 'I can't be bothered by your father' act after all these years.

"What about the books? Or the photo albums?" she challenges her mother as she switches her iPhone from one ear to the other.

"Can't you just decide which items to keep and then send them to me?" her mom asks, a note of helplessness entering her voice. Aerie rolls her eyes. She knows this routine. Somehow her mom is going to turn this into a pity party for herself and Aerie isn't interested.

"Sure. I'll take care of it. I gotta run." Aerie hangs up before her mom can say another word and makes a loud sound of frustration. She barely has enough time in the day to finish her own work, let alone take care of her dad's estate. She's the oldest of three kids – why is no one else willing to lift a goddamn hand to help?

Because their dad had been an asshole. Growing up with him had been a nightmare. When her parents divorced, Aerie had felt such relief. She could finally cut the bastard out of her life. But, all these years later, here she is, living in this city not because it's where she wants to be; working this job, not because it's the fulfillment of her career goals, but simply because it was necessary for someone to keep an eye on her dad as his dementia and Alzheimer's grew worse. After a lifetime of addiction to any and every substance he could get his hands on, her father still managed to live well into his 70s and the thing that had finally killed him was his inability to remember he'd broken his hip and couldn't walk on it. In his assisted-living facility, he kept removing the restraints and trying to walk around, continually reinjuring himself till he finally gave up and stopped eating. In the end, he hadn't recognized Aerie – didn't mistake her for his long-dead sister, or some other relative. No, in the last days of his life, he was a stranger but he was also exactly as she remembered him from her youth – angry and vindictive, lashing out at her for daring to exist in a space anywhere near him. He'd tried to bite her right before falling into the coma he never woke up from. And now that he's gone, no one else wants to help Aerie clean up after him – to help with repairs so they can sell the house, to help go through the boxes upon boxes of stuff in the attic – all things her mom had bitterly complained about wanting after the divorce. Now, suddenly, none of it matters. Well, fine. She'll take care of it all and then she'll get the hell out of this city and start living the life she actually wants instead of this one.

Aerie is snapped from her reverie of a life elsewhere by the ring of her office phone. She knits her brows at the tabletop device. Unplanned calls are never a good thing because it's always a crazy patron with an impossible request – all librarians know that. She looks closer at the caller ID. Oh Lord. Him?

"Hello, Doctor. What can I do for you today?" she answers, her voice wavering between amusement and apprehension. It's been almost a week since he barged into her office and he's been surprisingly quiet since – no email requests. But she assumes he's sufficiently recovered from their meeting and is looking for more assistance. Weird that he's calling since McCoy never does that but not as weird as dropping by her office at 7:50am.

"Ariadne!" he replies, as though surprised that she's picked up. "Look, I'm usin' a phone." She can see him in her mind, all frowns and grumbles, but still pleased with himself for following her advice on communicating.

"Yes, I'm very proud of you," she answers. "What do you need me to look up for you? Also, it's just Aerie."

"Sure, okay," he mumbles. "I don't actually have anything I need researched…"

"Did you just call to prove to yourself the phones work?" she asks, teasing him.

"No, dammit. I… I'm gonna be over on that side of campus later today… for a meeting. I wondered…well, I wondered if you would be interested in grabbing lunch…or something…"

Aerie is too shocked at the request to poke gentle fun at McCoy for his halting delivery.

"Really?" she asks, not bothering to hide her disbelief. Why would the poor man want to subject himself to her after she yelled at him, barely managed to be civil, and then shut the door in his face? Is he a glutton for punishment? Is she? Because hearing his voice over the phone is doing weird things to her stomach and Aerie's more than a little concerned at how excited she is to be talking to him.

"Yeah, really," he grumbles. "I picked up the phone to check ahead and everything."

"Okay," she replies, surprising even herself. What is she thinking? She doesn't want to spend time with him. She has a bunch of shit to get done.

"Great!" He sounds as incredulous as she feels. "So, wanna meet at noon? In the quad there in front of the library?"

"Sure," she flounders, unclear on why she isn't putting a stop to this foolishness right this instant. "I'll see you then. I'm the one with blue hair."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll find you," he mutters before hanging up.

Aerie stares at the phone for a moment before putting it back on the cradle. Doctor McCoy, the man who goes through librarians the way normal people go through underwear, just asked her on a lunch…thing? Maybe he likes when people are as snippy with him as he is with them? Aerie groans. She doesn't have time for this kind of nonsense in her life. She'll go to lunch with him, humor the man, but make it clear this is a one-time thing. He's barking up the wrong tree if he thinks they can be friends…or anything else. Still, in the back of her mind a little voice reminds her he's a good-looking sonofabitch and it's been...well, too damn long since she's gotten laid. He might make other librarians cry, but she's never gotten on his bad side. Of course, up until two days ago, she doubts he realized she existed as anything other than a receptacle for research requests. She squares her shoulders and turns to her unending list of emails to be answered. Doctor McCoy is too handsome for his own good and who can even focus on the looks when the personality is so unpleasant? She isn't going to spend another second thinking of him.

But somehow, her eyes keep tracking the time on her monitor and she smiles as co-workers pass by her office and wave to her. Despite the drudge of work in front of her, and the list a mile long of things she needs to take care of regarding her dad, she feels cheerful. And when noon finally rolls around, she bounces out of the library with a spring in her step, ready to take a break for no more than a half hour.

* * *

He sees her immediately as she glides down the steps of the library. How could he miss her? She's impossible to ignore, blue hair or not.

"It's different," he says, gesturing to her head as she bounds up to him.

"What?" she asks, confused, before running her hands through her ponytail. "Oh, yeah. I added some darker blues, and a little purple last night. You like it?" Why does she care what he thinks? What's wrong with her?

"It's…scintillating," he finally replies and she wonders how many words he's gone through to arrive at that one – she also wonders if it's a compliment or a put-down. "You do it yourself?" he asks her as they start walking towards the avenue where food trucks always set up.

"Yep," she replies. "Why pay someone else when I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself?"

He gives her an approving sideways glance. "Why indeed?" he murmurs.

They walk together in a friendly, if not somewhat nervous, silence as they approach all the trucks and scan them for what they want. It's unseasonably warm so Aerie has left her coat in her office but the wind is playing with her dress – a wrap dress – and she's concentrating on holding it closed, hoping McCoy is oblivious to her struggle. She hadn't thought about being outside when she'd gotten dressed this morning.

"So, you have a meeting over here this afternoon?" Aerie finally asks to break the silence.

McCoy groans. "Jim's gonna try to convince me to expand the residency program, I can just feel it."

Aerie looks at him for a moment. "Jim…President Kirk?" Aerie hasn't yet heard someone refer to the new president of the university so casually.

"Uh, yeah," he says, slightly embarrassed. "I have the hardest time calling that idiot President."

"So you're friends?" she asks with a hint of a smile.

"I'd like to deny it but I'll never hear the end of it if I do," he grumbles. "Damn kid's so cocky, it's hard for him to walk straight."

Aerie laughs at that; a genuine, deep laugh that causes McCoy to chuckle along.

"Tell me, are you this affectionate about all your friends, or does he just hold a special place in your heart?" she teases and he looks over at her with a frown that, ever so slowly, starts to turn into a smile.

"Just the lucky ones," he retorts. "So," he gestures to the trucks, "What do you feel like?"

She turns her attention back to the choices before them. "Oooh, empanadas!"

'The empanada truck it is," he replies, moving in that direction. "I'm guessing you're pretty picky about Greek food?" he asks, nodding his head to one of several Mediterranean food trucks as they walk.

Aerie is surprised the doctor remembers she's of Greek descent. "I've had stuff from a couple of those – it's not bad but homemade is always gonna be better," she replies as they get in line at the empanada truck.

"What about you?" she asks him, turning to face McCoy. "Are there any places around here that satisfy your cravings for southern home cooking?"

He gives her an appreciative nod. "I'd ask how you knew but I'm guessing the accent, at the least, gives it away."

"The accent certainly helps," she agrees. "But we librarians have our ways."

"Ya know, I'm startin' to think librarians are just professional stalkers." There's a playfulness to his tone.

"And yet, you're the one who invited me to lunch," Aerie points out with a smile.

"Gotta learn as much about you as you know about me," he replies with a smirk that does funny things to her insides. "I'm just playin' catch-up, darlin'." She wonders what other women do when he calls them darling. Aerie would bet dollars to donuts Doctor McCoy has a whole bevy of women pining for him over at the medical school – surely she isn't the only one he turns the charm on for.

"You know, Doc, if you keep this up, I'm gonna spread rumors that you're actually quite pleasant and funny," Aerie threatens before placing her order. McCoy places his order then turns to her.

"We can't have that," he says gravely. "Word gets out that I'm a nice guy and then I'm gonna have to stop and talk to every asshole on campus. No thank you."

"Your secret's safe with me…for now," she murmurs. Aerie watches as he rocks on his heels.

"You asked me about good southern cookin'," he begins as they wait for their orders. "Now, there are a few places I'd recommend but if you want the real thing? I do it better than any of them."

"Oh?" she replies, arching a brow at him. "You're talking a pretty big game, Doc."

"I can back it up. And call me Leonard. Or Len. Doc makes me feel old."

"How does Leonard not make you feel old?" she ribs him as she grabs her order. He gives her a look as he grabs his and they start walking over to several benches on the outskirts of the campus quad.

"No one taught you to respect your elders," he scolds her mockingly.

"I already told you – you're hardly my elder," she shoots back with a grin.

They settle down on a bench and eat their empanadas while talking about cooking, their jobs, what they like to do in their free time.

"Hey, you got a little something there," McCoy says softly, reaching his thumb out to Aerie's face. She freezes as he brushes a couple of crumbs away from the corner of her mouth. The feeling of his fingers on her cheek, then against the corner of her lips is like electricity jolting through her veins and she reminds herself she is simply overreacting because it's been too long since she's let another person touch her like this.

"I need to get going," McCoy says almost apologetically as Aerie looks down at her watch in surprise.

"Shit," she gasps, seeing that an hour had passed since she left the office. "I didn't mean to take this long a lunch."

"Sorry about that."

"No, it was fun. I'm glad we did this," she replies, and she means it. She'd had no idea Leonard McCoy could be so interesting. When he wants to be, the man is charismatic as hell.

They walk back to the library entrance.

"If you're not doing anything one of these nights," he says, his nervousness returning, "I'd be happy to prove to you just how good a cook I am."

"I'd really like that," Aerie answers. "But only if you let me return the favor with a delicious dinner of my own."

"Did you just turn one date into two?" he asks her with that same smirk that melts her insides.

"I'm very resourceful," she replies with a smirk of her own. She pulls out her iPhone and ignores how the number of unanswered emails has grown while she's been at lunch. "What's your number?" she asks, half-disbelieving she's willingly taking down one of her faculty's personal digits. But they exchange numbers and she leaves him with a wave as she climbs the steps back into the library.


	3. Chapter 3

"Dammit, Jim," McCoy says in frustration, "I don't have the staff to expand the residency program by three more spots."

"C'mon," James Kirk scoffs, looking over the reports on the table between the two men. "You've got space in Surgery, Psychiatry, and Internal Medicine. There are your three new openings."

"Fuckin' administrators," McCoy grumbles. "Y'all think a bunch of lines on some paper tell the whole story."

Jim gives McCoy a hard stare.

"Bones," he starts. "It's not like I just sit around looking for ways to make your life miserable."

"You sure about that?" the doctor asks, cocking his brow at his friend.

"The board is insistent," Jim tells McCoy, his normally mirthful blue eyes dark with seriousness. "They want to see our rankings improve and this is one way I can give them tangible results from our efforts."

McCoy sits back in his chair, glaring at the younger man. He's never gonna understand how Jim managed to become the youngest president of a major private university. It wasn't enough for Jim to get tenure more quickly than the usual history professor – oh no. He'd drunkenly told McCoy the first night they'd met that he'd be president of the university within ten years. McCoy hadn't believed him because who would? But here they are.

"What about Pike's plans to expand the library?" he asks Jim, ignoring his friend's slight wince at the mention of his predecessor and former mentor's name. Christopher Pike had been president of the university for years – one of the longest standing university presidents in the academic world. A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer had cut his illustrious career short and left an opening for Jim to fulfill his own career goals. But Jim would trade the presidency in a second if he could have Chris Pike back in his life. He misses the man he'd come to look at as a father figure.

"A library expansion?" Jim asks. "When was that?"

"About five or six years ago. Pike started talking about how the school would benefit from renovating and expanding the library. He got pushback from some of the more traditional donors but I'm pretty sure they had architects draw up plans. It was right around the time we created an assistant director position within the library – it offered tenure just like the university librarian position."

Jim wrinkles his forehead as he thinks.

"You're right," he says slowly. "I do remember that whole discussion. Whatever happened to that poor woman we hired?"

"She's still here," McCoy answers Jim. "She told me today that she's got something like thirty-five faculty members she does work for and three student workers to help her out."

"Today? You talked to her today, huh?" Jim doesn't miss the way McCoy's eyes soften when he starts talking about the librarian.

"Yeah. She's my liaison. Why are you lookin' at me like that, you nutjob?" McCoy gives Jim a stern look.

"You've got a new lady interest," Jim practically sings, his eyes dancing.

"Keep your trap shut," McCoy mumbles. "You don't know what you're talkin' about, farm boy."

"Yeah I do," Jim argues with a huge smile. "You only make fun of my proud Iowan heritage when I really get under your skin. So tell me about this fine young woman…"

McCoy just continues to glare at the other man and Jim shrugs.

"Or don't say anything," he adds. "I can look her up well enough on my own. I'll just make a quick trip to the library, okay?"

"The hell you will," McCoy snarls. "The last time you interfered with my love life, I ended up with a wild raccoon in my car and no secretary – took me forever to find a replacement and I wasn't even interested in Janice in the first place! You stay the fuck away from the library, ya hear?"

"Okay, okay, Romeo," Jim agrees with his arms up to signal surrender. "I'll let you destroy your chances at a relationship on your own." Jim gets up, indicating the meeting is over. "But just one question."

"What?" McCoy practically spits, still angry over how long it had taken to get the raccoon out of his car.

"Is she cute?"

"Fuck off."

McCoy leaves the room with Jim's laughter ringing in his ears. Sometimes, he wonders how they ever became friends.

* * *

Aerie has seen Doctor McCoy at the gym before. He isn't there consistently, and she imagines some of that is likely due to scheduling. Perhaps on the days she doesn't see him early in the morning, he works out in the afternoon or evening. Previous to his early morning surprise visit to her office, she has ignored him, and everyone else, in the gym. She usually gets there around 5:30am and since she's the last thing anyone would describe as a morning person, she keeps to herself, getting on the treadmill and running her five miles before hitting the showers.

Leonard has never noticed Aerie in the gym and once he sees her enter, the morning after their lunch together, he realizes why. She wears a lightweight hoodie and keeps the hood up the entire time, even on the treadmill. He gets on the machine next to her and she briefly glances over, giving him a cursory nod before refocusing on her own run.

"So that's how it's gonna be," he thinks to himself as he adjusts the settings on his treadmill to match her pace.

Aerie doesn't know if she's annoyed or thrilled with the handsome man next to her. She supposes it's flattering that he's noticed her but she isn't really at her best this early in the day. She decides to speed up, noting that he's matched her pace.

For the next half hour, they play a cruel game of tag with one another, each raising the pace on their machines in an effort to outdo the other. Once Aerie hits her five miles, she brings her treadmill back to a cool-down rate.

"Oh, thank God," McCoy puffs next to her, bringing his machine's speed down as well.

"You didn't have to race me, you know," she replies, irritated at having run so fast. "This is why I don't do gym buddies."

"You're a real treat in the mornin', sweetheart," McCoy mutters back at her, equally annoyed, and something about the whole thing – about how red and sweaty they both are, how they're both glaring at each other while trying to catch their breath, and how ridiculous they'd both behaved trying to show one another up – well, Aerie can't help the laugh that bubbles out of her.

Even while McCoy chuckles with her, he keeps bitching. "You think it's funny, driving me to a heart attack?"

"Maybe you need to work out more if a half hour's gonna tire you out," she retorts, still giggling.

"I've got better things to do than spend my time here, trying to outrun the youths," he says, giving her a hard look. "Speaking of better things, how's next Friday for dinner at my place?"

She blinks in surprise and grabs her phone to check. "That works," she says slowly.

"Good. See you then. Try to avoid any more treadmill wars in the meantime, ya hear?"

"No promises," she replies as she walks away. Just before leaving the gym, she turns to see his eyes still on her and she smiles at him. Leonard is pretty sure that smile is worth the run he's just suffered through. He can't wait to see what a dinner with Aerie will bring.

* * *

"I'm gonna go to dinner with one of the most difficult faculty members I deal with and I'm…looking forward to it." Aerie forces herself to say the words aloud as she works on the boxes in the attic of her brownstone. Technically, it isn't hers. She's been living there since moving back to take care of her dad, and she makes all the payments on the utilities, etc. but it's her dad's house. And this is his shit – his and her mom's and it's fucking stupid she has to go through everything on her own. So she's giving it all the same attention and care to detail that her family has given her over the past six years – not much. If a few prized books or pictures end up getting thrown out, too bad.

"I'm not crazy, right? He's actually really nice, funny, smart…what the fuck is happening to me?"

She has seen Doctor McCoy two more times at the gym since the first incident. Even though he bitches about it each time, he grabs the treadmill next to her and they race. She's willing to admit she looks forward to their early-morning interactions. Aerie keeps talking to herself as she goes through the junk all around her.

"I mean, he's hot. Yes. There's definitely that. But am I really considering something with this guy? I thought I hated him. He's been such a pain in the ass before now."

Has he really though? She's dealt with far worse. He makes a lot of requests, and the turn-around time is sometimes a bit tight, but he's always been understanding if she tells him she needs more time – as long as she communicates with him, he doesn't seem to have a problem with pushing deadlines back. She wonders if that was part of the problem with previous liaisons – librarians aren't always the best at communicating. Everyone she works with is terrific at researching, great at the back-end library stuff, like maintaining the catalog records, collection development, and the like. But not everyone wants to get up in front of classes to teach about the best resources for a topic. And not everyone enjoys interacting with the faculty, especially the faculty in the graduate schools, who tend to request more obscure materials. The relationships between librarians and faculty members have gotten worse since the librarians were voted out of their faculty status. They've always felt like other faculty members considered them to be somehow less than, but the vote to change their status to academic administrative professionals has deepened the rift between librarians and faculty members. After the vote, Aerie worried the liaison program would be hit hardest and she hasn't been wrong. But she's pretty sure she's been unfair in her perceptions of Doctor McCoy.

"Still, even if he's not that bad, should I really be dating one of my liaisons?"

She sneezes as she opens a box and dust in the air swirls around her.

"What could possibly go wrong? I date this guy, it ends horribly, he complains about me and I lose my job. Good thing I don't want this job anyway…"

Another sneeze.

"And that's another thing. Why should I get involved with anyone in this city now that I'm finally able to look for a better job elsewhere? Still, he's so fucking hot."

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Aerie screams at the unexpected voice from behind her and promptly trips over a box while her friend Nyota laughs.

"What are you doing here?" Aerie finally sputters, as Nyota picks her way through the pile of boxes, furniture, and other junk in the attic and offers her hand to Aerie.

"You lost track of time, girl. It's already 6:30," Ny replies as she pulls Aerie up.

"Really?" Aerie looks around for her phone and finds it on the windowsill. "Shit, I'm sorry." She sees the numerous missed calls and texts Ny has left her.

"Not a big deal. The back door was unlocked so I let myself in. I was ready to leave when I heard you babbling to yourself. Just who is this man whom, I quote, is so fucking hot?"

Aerie blushes. "It's nothing."

"Sure didn't sound like nothing. You were having a regular conversation with yourself." Nyota crosses her arms and looks at her friend. Aerie realizes they aren't going anywhere if she doesn't spill the beans.

"How much did you hear?" she asks Ny bashfully.

"Enough."

Aerie sighs. "I have a date with a faculty member I've been doing work for and I don't know how to feel about it."

Nyota gives her a huge smile.

"A date! That's great! Who is it? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"What if you know him?" Aerie asks. Nyota works at the university as well.

"Why would that matter?" Nyota retorts.

She and Aerie met in the cafeteria near the arts and sciences building – they'd both been reading the same book and started a conversation over it. Six years later, Nyota is one of Aerie's closest friends. She's a linguistics professor and currently the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences on the undergrad campus and even if it isn't likely she knows Leonard, Aerie feels weird letting the cat out of the bag. What happens if their date is a disaster? Is it worth telling anyone else about at this point? Still, as she looks at Nyota, who is impatiently awaiting the goods, she decides she owes it to the other woman to be honest because Ny is one of the few people in this city who knows everything else about Aerie's life. And she's going to help with the attic crap after dinner.

"His name's Leonard McCoy. He runs the –"

"Len! Really? Oh my God, you two would be perfect together! Or you're gonna kill each other! I can't believe I didn't think of setting you two up before this!" Nyota claps her hands in delight and more dust motes move around in the air, making Aerie sneeze a third time.

"You know him?" Aerie asks as her face falls. What are the chances? Sure, it's a small campus but the med school is practically on its own campus, far from the arts and sciences department.

"Yeah, silly. And you could've sooner if you'd ever join me when I invite you out with the crew," Nyota replies, moving to the attic trapdoor. "Come on, let's get you out of here before the dust kills you."

Aerie follows Ny down and out of the attic. "Leonard McCoy is one of the crew?" she asks Nyota and the other woman nods.

Nyota has been harassing Aerie to join her with what she calls her crew – a group of administrators and professors from the university that all started at about the same time and went through the orientation program together. Everyone who works at the university agrees on at least one thing – the orientation program is the worst; a three-day hell designed to make a person regret their decision to accept an offer from the prestigious institution. During Nyota's orientation, her group had bonded over their shared hatred of it and all these years later, they still get together regularly for drinks or dinner.

"Who else is on the crew?" Aerie asks, realizing she should have listened more closely when Ny was telling her stories about them.

"Well, let's see. There's Scotty, from the Engineering School –"

"Dean Scott?"

"Yep. And Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov – they're both tenured professors. Chekov is a professor in the Engineering School and Sulu is a Botany guy. Then there's Len...and Jim, of course."

"President Kirk? He was in your orientation group?"

"Sure was. And he's the same womanizing asshole now that he was then. I would not be excited if you had a date with him. I'd shoot you full of penicillin and every STD remedy available before letting you go out with him." Nyota never holds back on her opinions and it's part of what Aerie loves about the woman.

"There are a few others too. Dean Spock, Doctor Chapel…but yeah, that's basically the group."

'I can't believe how many of you are deans now. And the president of the university. That's a hell of a recruiting class there," Aerie says appreciatively. "I don't know if I remember anyone from my group."

Unlike Nyota, the people Aerie went through orientation with had been silent and after three days of a stifling lack of personality combined with the life-sucking boredom of the program itself, Aerie had been ready to quit. And that was before the rug was pulled out from under her regarding the library expansion.

"Yeah, we had a good group," Nyota agrees. "And of them, Len is absolutely one of the best. Seriously, I'm so excited for you! Tell me how this came about – and what's this about a new job?"

The women continue talking through a quick dinner at a café near Aerie's place and then into the work of sorting out the attic afterwards. By the time Nyota leaves, at 10pm, Aerie knows a lot more about Leonard McCoy. He's divorced, with a daughter he gets to see every other weekend during the school year and every other week in the summer. Nyota tells Aerie she's never known Leonard to pursue someone – as far as she knows, he's given up on dating and relationships altogether. In return for the scoop on her date, Aerie tells Nyota about what she's planning – her goal to sell the brownstone and look for a job that will let her focus more on training librarians to teach, preferably in a different city. Nyota is sad to hear it but she understands. What the university librarian has done to Aerie is inexcusable.

She'd been hired to be the assistant director of the soon-to-be expanded library. She would've been the one to hire additional librarians and support staff. She would focus on bringing librarians into the classroom on a more frequent basis and that was the reason Aerie had taken the job. She loves the idea of librarians assisting with the workload of teaching – to her, that's the future of academic reference librarians. However, three months into her employment, Chris Pike stepped down as university president and two months after that, when he passed, his wife, the director of the university library, left as well. Suddenly, the plans to expand the library didn't seem so firm. Aerie loved working with Sarah Pike and the idea of working with someone else when so much now seemed in limbo had filled her with apprehension. She acted as interim director while a replacement was hired. She'd never wanted to be the head university librarian – even on a small campus like theirs, university libraries were big, and took a lot of time to manage. She'd abandoned her own research as she ran the university library and not once did the faculty committee appointed to hire the new director ask for her input. She shouldn't have been surprised when they ended up hiring her least favorite candidate – they'd been blinded by his credentials on paper and missed the fact that he was resistant to change and disliked innovation. He'd immediately gone after Aerie.

To this day, she isn't clear how the expansion plan had been shelved, but Aerie knows the director spoke out against it, claiming he couldn't afford to grow the library. He also scrapped her initiative to train librarians to teach. Truth is, he doesn't like her, doesn't want her competing for attention against him, and knows the best way to keep her down is to prevent the very goals she was hired to accomplish. And, for the last five years, he's been successful. Aerie hates the man and she can't wait to give him her notice. She dreams of a day when she won't have to answer to him.

In the meantime, Aerie is expected to take on a slew of faculty liaisons since she has more time now that the plan to train librarians to go into the classroom has been nixed. In a twist of the knife, she's been given a pittance in the way of three student workers to assist her. Other librarians with less faculty have way more student workers but anytime she points out the inequality, her director snaps at her, telling her as assistant director, it would look unseemly for her to have too many student workers or a dedicated secretary. He simultaneously loves to remind her that her title is effectively worthless now that the library won't be expanded. Every year, she manages to find the cream of the crop, in terms of students willing to work in the library, but even the best students can't compare to having more support staff or even hiring more librarians. Aerie has wondered if she'll ever get to focus on her own scholarship again but when her position as faculty was revoked a year ago, she realized the only good to come from her new status was that she didn't have to feel guilty for not publishing more.

So yeah, Nyota gets it. She knows full well why Aerie wants a new job. She also knows Aerie doesn't love living in this city because it reminds her of her unhappy childhood. But Ny can't help hoping things go well with Len. Well enough that Aerie might consider finding a different job without moving – they're in a major city on the east coast, surrounded by several other academic institutions – surely Aerie could stay and find a different job if she wants. If she has a good enough reason…and Nyota knows Leonard McCoy has it in him to be a good reason for the right person.


	4. Chapter 4

"Do you know how good your entire street smells right now? The neighbors are gonna show up and join us," Aerie informs McCoy as he lets her into his house. He smiles and grabs her coat to hang it up. She takes in her surroundings as he guides her to the kitchen.

"Being chief of medicine doesn't seem like such a bad gig anymore," she murmurs appreciatively as he gestures to a bar stool across the counter from him and she takes a seat.

"I rent," he replies with a wry smile. "Even my salary doesn't buy you a place in this neighborhood."

"It's weird, right? Like, why are all the houses by the campus so expensive? I thought this was supposed to be where students lived," she answers, turning around on the stool to get a better look at the place.

"I'll give you a tour in a little bit," he tells her. "What do you want to drink?"

"What are my options?" she asks back.

"Wine, beer, water, hard liquors… and sodas," he replies.

"I'll take one of those," she responds, nodding to the beer by his hand.

"Good choice," he says with a grin, grabbing her one from the fridge and opening it before handing the bottle to her. He holds his up and she clinks hers against it.

"So, can I help with anything?" she asks after taking a sip.

"Naw. It's all under control," he says, looking over at the oven and stovetop before turning back and giving her a peculiar look.

"What?" Aerie asks, feeling like she's done something to warrant the serious gaze he's giving her but unsure of what, exactly, she could have done within the two minutes she's been in his house.

"Why didn't you tell me…about your dad?" he finally asks her gently and she realizes the look he's been giving her is one of concern. Aerie groans.

"Nyota, I take it," she responds.

"Yeah," he admits. "Aerie, I'm so sorry. Here I busted into your office, wondering why you hadn't responded to my email…and you still got all that work done. Ny says you stay late at the library pretty regularly…and come in on the weekends too."

"We have weekend shifts during the school year," Aerie mutters, uncomfortable with his worry.

"Yeah, but she says you're there almost every Saturday AND Sunday. And that project – it had to have taken several hours. No wonder you were so short with me."

Aerie sighs in frustration. She hates conversations like this because she always ends up sounding like a jackass. But that's never stopped her before.

"I was short with you because I don't like talking to people that early in the morning. And I don't like surprise visits. My dad had been in hospice for a few months. I wasn't upset when he died. I was relieved. Sure, it was annoying to have to take the time off from work to be there, but it's done now."

He doesn't say anything after she finishes; just contemplates her and that's even more uncomfortable than being told she's unfeeling or unkind.

"Didn't like your old man much, huh?" He takes a sip of his beer.

"No, I wasn't a fan," she confirms.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asks delicately.

"How much has Ny already told you?" she replies testily. It's McCoy's turn to sigh and he rounds the counter to stand in front of her stool.

"I didn't mean to start the night with a serious conversation you don't want to have. Forget I said anything, okay?"

He's so close, she can see the flecks of green in his hazel eyes under the pendant lights. Good lord, how does one man cram so many gorgeous features into one face? And the look he's giving her. Aerie can't stay annoyed if she wants.

"It's okay," she says softly. "You probably haven't noticed, but I can be kinda prickly sometimes."

He laughs at that and she smiles, relieved to have broken some of the tension in the room.

"How 'bout that tour?" he asks her, grabbing his beer to take a gulp before setting it back down. She grabs a swig of hers and hops off the stool.

A few minutes later, in the family room, she holds up a picture of a young girl. "Is this your daughter?" she asks and he looks at her in surprise before shaking his head.

"Guess I wasn't the only one Nyota talked to," he says as he comes over to the built-in shelves she's standing in front of.

"She means well," Aerie murmurs as he takes the frame from her hands.

"I know," he answers. "And yes. This is my daughter, Joanna."

"She's got your eyes," Aerie tells him, looking into the aforementioned eyes to find that they're already fixed on her. He looks back at the picture and smiles. "She's a great kid. The only good thing to come out of an otherwise disastrous marriage."

"Speaking as a kid of divorced parents," Aerie says softly, "Don't ever let her hear you say that, okay?"

He cocks an eyebrow at her as he sets the picture frame back down on the shelf.

"It's hard…growing up…knowing how much your parents hate each other. Even if they never say anything to you, you blame yourself. And if they do talk about how horrible the other parent is, well, it sucks, you know? Kids don't ask to be put in these kinds of situations. They're like civilians caught in the crossfire of two militaries at war."

He continues to stare at her and she wonders what he's thinking.

"Sorry," she mumbles. "You don't need me to tell you how to be a parent. I kill half my plants so who knows what I'd do with an actual human being."

"Don't," he says, his voice husky.

"Don't what?" she asks in return, her own voice low.

"Don't put yourself down like that. Don't doubt yourself. I want to hear everything you have to say."

He touches her cheek, barely a graze of his fingers but Aerie feels like he just reached inside of her.

"You might regret admitting that," she whispers with a lopsided smile as he rests one hand on her hip.

"I'll take the risk," he whispers in response, his arm moving around her back to pull her closer.

"Should I tell you more about dealing with divorce?" she teases him. "Is that what gets you in the mood?"

He rests his forehead against hers and she catches a brief glimpse of a smirk.

"It's not the conversation that's gettin' me goin'," he growls into her ear and Aerie shivers, pulling away from McCoy.

"You've got a tour to finish and if we get too far off-course, you'll burn dinner and I'll never believe you can cook," she says lightly.

"You're gonna make me wait, huh?" he asks, moving to the hallway.

"Dessert is after dinner," she counters, following him.

He turns and she suddenly realizes there isn't much space in the hallway with him facing her, that look in his eye.

"Sometimes, I like eating my dessert before dinner," he tells her, and this time, she doesn't stop him as he pulls her back into his arms.

"Me too," she confesses breathlessly as one of his hands weaves through her hair, grabbing a handful at the nape of her neck. Aerie wraps her arms around McCoy's shoulders.

"I'm not talkin' about food," he warns her, giving her one last chance to back out.

"I sure hope not," she replies, pressing herself against him. It's so nice to be with a man who is her height – everything lines up so well. Before she can think another thought, his lips are on hers and everything becomes feeling and sensation.

His lips are so warm and soft, Aerie has a moment of envy as they kiss. But she soon forgets to care as the kiss becomes more insistent. He smells amazing – a little like aftershave but mainly just that smell she associates with men. She breathes it in and feels a heady mix of desire and anticipation as his arms tighten around her. She can feel the muscles under his pullover and tee shirt, can feel his thighs against her own, his hips on hers. She runs her hands along his shoulders to his back, reveling in how good he feels underneath her touch – powerful, ready to spring into action. She wants to feel the weight of him on top of her in bed.

"We left a room with a perfectly good couch," he mumbles between kisses, pushing her against the wall, "so that we could end up here: the least conducive place for making out in the whole damn house."

"You're such a grump," she replies as he trails his mouth down her neck. She arches her back and he gives a moan of gratitude.

"Keep that up and I'll never say a negative word again," he whispers, his hands on her breasts.

She whimpers as he plays with her nipples through her cardigan and dress.

"You couldn't stay positive for more than a few minutes at a time," she gasps, her hands in his hair. He meets her mouth with his and she opens hers, letting his tongue lick against her own.

"You're right," he agrees when their lips break apart again. "But this is certainly making it hard for me to complain."

"That's not the only thing being made hard," she says with a wicked grin as she presses against him, rubbing against the firm ridge in his pants.

"I'm gonna burn dinner and it's your fault," he sighs before recapturing her lips in his. She loves how aggressively he kisses her, staking his claim on her with his mouth. It allows her to be as aggressive as she wants in return, conquering every part of his skin that her mouth can reach.

They continue to kiss deeply, pulling one another closer, tugging at each other's clothing till both of them realize there's a noise that has nothing to do with heavy breathing or moaning. There is, in fact, a persistent knocking at the front door.

"Goddammit," McCoy grumbles. "No one ever comes by here except for the one time I have a beautiful woman in my arms."

Aerie laughs. "Ignore it," she recommends as she presses wet kisses up his throat. But the knocks continue and suddenly, they can hear yelling. A shrill female voice is added to the knocks and McCoy freezes, pulling away from Aerie.

"Fuck," he mutters, moving quickly through the hallway into the kitchen and then to the front foyer. Aerie follows him and he turns to her.

"Stay there," he orders her and she hangs back in the kitchen, unsure of what's going on, but increasingly convinced it isn't good. From her spot in the kitchen, she hears Leonard open the door.

"Took you long enough," a woman spits.

"Jocelyn, what're you doing here?" he replies and in a very different tone, "Hey Jo. How's my girl?"

"Hi daddy!" says a cheerful girl's voice.

"Something's come up and I need you to take Jo this weekend," the woman answers.

"Come on in, sweetie," he says. "Give your mom and me a second, okay? If you head to the kitchen, one of my friends is there and she'll get you something to drink."

"You've got female friends?" the woman scoffs. Aerie can't hear Leonard's response because the door closes and she realizes there's a child in the foyer who will be coming into the kitchen any second. So she moves towards the foyer and finds Joanna staring at the closed front door.

She crouches down to be at the girl's eye level.

"Hey, are you Joanna?"

The girl turns to face her and studies her intently for a moment before nodding.

"Who are you?" she asks Aerie.

"My name's Aerie," she replies, putting her hand out.

"Like fairy?" the girl asks, solemnly shaking her hand.

"I guess so."

"Is that why your hair is blue?" Joanna asks her and Aerie smiles.

"Maybe. Maybe I want to look like a fairy." She stands up and guides the girl into the kitchen, as they both hear an angry female voice outside the door.

"That's my mom," Joanna says to her in a small voice. "She yells a lot around Daddy."

Aerie crouches back down to be at Joanna's eye level. "I know. My mom used to do the same thing around my dad. And he yelled back, let me tell you. It wasn't any fun."

Joanna looks at Aerie with the kind of gaze a child who has grown up quicker than they should've gives.

"Are your parents divorced too?" she asks and Aerie has to fight the urge to hug the little girl tightly.

"Yep. They split up when I was 14. It was a good thing for everyone involved."

"My friend Suzy makes fun of me. She says I don't have a real family because my parents don't live together." Joanna looks down as if reliving the shame of being called out all over again.

"Suzy sounds like she's not very nice. She doesn't seem to understand that the word family can mean different things to different people," Aerie replies. Joanna looks up at her quizzically.

"If you have people who love you in your life, they can be your family. It's as simple as that," Aerie explains, hoping she isn't overstepping her bounds as someone on a first date with the girl's father. "So maybe you have a mom and dad and they stay together. Or maybe you only have one parent –"

"Or maybe you have two moms or two dads, like Jason," Joanna says enthusiastically. "Suzy makes fun of him too but I love Jason's dads. They're really funny."

"Exactly. See, Suzy doesn't know what she's talking about. Now, let's get you that drink your dad promised." Aerie moves farther into the kitchen, hoping the distance will prevent them from hearing the former Mrs. McCoy yell. She notes that she hasn't heard McCoy yell back. As gruff as he can be, he isn't the one yelling loud enough to be heard.

"I think you're too tall to be a fairy," Joanna says as she walks alongside Aerie and cranes her neck to look up at the woman.

"Well, that's too bad. I guess I'm just a tall girl with blue hair then."

"I like it. I'm tall too – one of the tallest in my class!" Joanna scrambles on top of one of the barstools and Aerie beams at the girl.

"That's great! Being tall is fun, right?" She hopes Joanna never goes through that phase all tall girls inevitably go through when they start to slouch because they're made fun of for being lanky or gangly. She hopes Joanna never feels like she doesn't fit in because she's the tallest person in the room and the men are afraid to approach her while the women think she's intimidating and snooty. It's nice to be reminded of how simple things are as a kid.

"How old are you?" she asks the girl as she takes her backpack and travel bag from her and sets them down on the stool next to Joanna.

"Seven. Can I have some water?"

"Of course!" Aerie replies, moving to the fridge and grabbing a Brita pitcher out of it. "I just need to find the glasses…"

"They're over there," Joanna says, pointing to a cabinet by the oven.

"Thanks!" Aerie pours the girl a drink and puts the pitcher back in the fridge.

"How do you know my daddy?" Joanna asks her after taking a gulp of water.

"We work at the university together. I help your dad do research for the articles he writes."

"Oh. Cool! Wanna see some pictures?" Joanna hops off the barstool and makes a beeline for the family room.

"Sure, why not?" Aerie replies, following her.

And that's how McCoy comes back into the family room to find his daughter sitting on the couch, snuggling in close to Aerie with a photo album open on her lap, pointing out her favorite horse at grandma's house to her captivated audience. He watches them for a moment before saying anything and Aerie, feeling his gaze, looks up and meets his eyes with her own.

"Sorry," he mouths silently, nodding to Joanna and the smile Aerie gives him assures him the date isn't ruined in the least by the unexpected addition of his daughter.

"Hey, Jo. You don't have to show Aerie the whole album now. Let's save something for after dinner, huh?"

"Daddy!" The album is cast aside and the girl flings herself off the couch and into her dad's arms. Aerie is pretty sure watching McCoy embrace his daughter tightly is one of the sweetest things she's ever seen. But then, she always gets weirdly sentimental about dads and daughters – like cry-at-commercials sappy – maybe because her own father was such a disappointment. She shakes her head slightly to get any thoughts of her dad out of it.

"Y'all hungry?" McCoy asks, looking over at Aerie while Joanna gives him an enthusiastic "YES!"

"Made your favorite," he tells his daughter as he sets her back on the ground. "Let's get a place at the table set for ya, okay?"

Within minutes, the threesome is sitting at the table, enjoying a delicious dinner of fried chicken, collared greens, and mashed potatoes with homemade biscuits to boot.

"Oh, wow," Aerie murmurs between bites. "This is so good!"

"See," McCoy grins at her. "Told ya I was a good cook."

"I'll never doubt you again," she replies with a grin and a wink. McCoy is certain that, but for his daughter's presence, he would climb over the table and carry Aerie to his bedroom right then and there. Instead, dinner passes in a blur of funny stories and laughter and when Joanna runs to change into her pajamas, Aerie helps McCoy clean off the table and kitchen.

"Thanks for being so understanding about the change in plans," he murmurs as they load the dishwasher.

"Hey, this kinda thing happens. Joanna's a great kid." Aerie hands him another plate.

"Yeah, she's pretty terrific. Got the best traits from both of us and none of the bad stuff," he replies with a smile.

"I haven't heard her complain once," Aerie notes with a raised eyebrow.

"Like I said…" McCoy answers, closing the dishwasher door and swatting her on the butt with his dishtowel.

He wraps his arms around her and Aerie leans back against him, feeling his chin rest on her shoulder. "Maybe I kinda like your huffing and puffing," she says softly.

"Well, you're in for a treat," he deadpans before pulling away at the sound of Joanna running down the hallway to join them.

"Can we watch a movie?" she asks both adults as she slides into the kitchen.

"Sounds good to me," Aerie replies, looking over at McCoy. "What do you say, dad?" Joanna doesn't stick around to hear his response, running into the family room and jumping on the couch.

"Careful what you agree to," McCoy says quietly to Aerie as he moves to follow his daughter. "We just got out of a huge Disney phase."

"The horror!" Aerie replies with a mock shiver. She removes her cardigan and, with the cap sleeves of her dress being so diminutive, McCoy can see the colorful tattoos on her upper arms. On one arm, she has a tattoo of a traditional Chinese clay doll and on the other, cherry blossoms. He stops and touches her arm briefly, tracing the outline of the blossoms on it and she looks down at his fingers on her.

"I have…a few tattoos," she admits. "Most are not as big as these two."

"How many is a few?" he asks, not in judgment, but curiosity.

"One for every country I've visited," she replies.

"And how many countries would that be?" he prods with a grin.

"I….I lost count after 75," she confesses and his grin grows wider.

"And you keep them covered?"

"Mostly," she whispers. "They're for me, not anyone else. But if you're lucky, maybe you'll get to see them," she says with a smile that makes McCoy feel a twitch below the belt. She passes him to enter the family room.

"What do you wanna watch?" McCoy asks Joanna as she jumps up and down on the couch. "Also, when'd you join the circus? Sit down!"

"Sorry," Joanna mumbles, sitting down. "I just got excited. I wanna watch Indiana Jones – the Crusade one!"

"Well, that sure isn't Disney," Aerie says in an undertone to McCoy. He gives her a look.

"It's fine. She'll be asleep before the end."

Aerie moves to the couch. "You're the parent, not me," she replies with a smile. She really has no idea what's appropriate for a seven-year-old to watch. She remembers seeing Indiana Jones for the first time but she's not sure how old she was – maybe a year or two older than Joanna? As the child of immigrants, Aerie always felt like she was a bit behind on pop culture anyway so she's always interested in observing children to see what they think is cool or note-worthy. She watches her students as well, under the guise of staying attuned to what the library can provide them.

"Okay, Jo," McCoy states. "What's the rule about big kid movies?"

"No repeating bad words and close my eyes if I get scared," Joanna says dutifully before turning to Aerie. "I learned how to do a French braid this week. Want me to show you?" Her eyes glide down to Aerie's arms and she takes a long look at the tattoos.

"Sure!" Aerie replies. "Wanna braid my hair?"

Joanna looks at her as though she's just offered the girl a free puppy.

"Can I really?" she whispers with such sincerity that Aerie almost laughs.

"Of course! I'll sit right here, okay?" She sits down on the floor, right in front of Joanna. McCoy turns on the TV, brings the movie up, turns out the lights in the room, and joins them on the couch. The look he gives Aerie just before sitting down – a mix of longing, disappointment that she's on the floor and not sitting next to him on the couch, and amusement at what his daughter is about to inflict on her – that look sets her on fire.

For the first forty-five minutes of the movie, Joanna plays with Aerie's hair, doing and then re-doing braids over and over. Aerie doesn't mind. It feels nice, having someone touch her hair and she's able to reach over and first poke at, then later caress McCoy's leg while Joanna is preoccupied. At one point, Joanna asks her dad to help by holding onto sections of Aerie's hair for her while she works. Aerie smiles and leans into it as McCoy fingers the strands, moving his hand up, until she can feel his hand against her head, rubbing gently.

"Isn't it soft?" Joanna whispers to her dad, referring to Aerie's hair.

"Sure is," he replies in an equally hushed tone.

"Can I dye my hair purple?" Joanna asks him and Aerie laughs quietly.

"Not sure how Mama would feel about that, sweetie," he replies, his hand drifting down, resting on Aerie's neck.

In the darkness, Joanna frowns for a minute, then shrugs. "Maybe when I'm older? Like 9 or 10?"

Aerie feels McCoy nudge her with his foot as if to say, "Look what you've done," and she tilts her head back to make eye contact with him. "Sorry," she mouths with a grin.

"Daddy, you have the coolest friends," Joanna whispers to McCoy a few minutes later and Aerie thinks her heart might explode.

"Yeah, I'm a pretty lucky guy," McCoy answers, his foot rubbing Aerie's thigh.

When Joanna is tired of playing with her hair, Aerie gets up and joins the other two on the couch. As McCoy predicted, Joanna grabs a pillow and moves to another part of the sectional so she can stretch out and lie down. McCoy hands her a blanket and moves closer to Aerie. By the final scene, Aerie is leaning against McCoy, one hand entwined with his, the other resting on his chest, with his free arm around her shoulders. Joanna sleeps quietly as the credits roll and then, it's just the two of them in the dark, with a sleeping child on the other end of the L-shaped couch. McCoy lets go of Aerie's hand to touch her cheek and he dips his head down to hers.

"Len," she whispers, nodding to Joanna.

"She sleeps through everything," he whispers back. "Gets it from her dad." But he doesn't draw in closer, waiting for Aerie to let him know it's okay.

"Must be nice," she murmurs, her own hand making its way to his face.

"Not a good sleeper?" he asks as he brushes his lips against her forehead. Aerie shivers at the sensation, not sure what it says about her that she's so turned-on when a seven-year-old is in the same room, maybe a meter away.

"Nope," she sighs as he trails his mouth down the side of her face and buries his face against her neck.

"Always been that way or did something trigger the insomnia?" he asks against her skin and Aerie wonders why more doctors don't use this approach to getting information out of their patients. Of course, more doctors would need to look like the man next to her.

"Started when my parents split up," she says, her breath catching at the end of the sentence because he moves his mouth up her throat and the burn of his stubble against her skin feels so fucking good.

And suddenly, he's kissing her, deeply, possessively, and Aerie doesn't care who's in the room. She shifts to face him, not quite in his lap but not far from it. His hands are in her hair and hers are at his sides, pulling him close, as close as she can get him and then she hears a sigh and pulls away quickly because the sigh isn't him. It's a little girl shifting in her sleep.

McCoy looks at the panic in Aerie's eyes and chuckles softly.

"I'm gonna put Jo to bed," he growls softly. "Can you grab her bear from the kitchen?"

"Okay," she agrees, getting up with him and following him as he picks up the sleeping girl and carries her upstairs to her bedroom. Aerie grabs the stuffed animal in question and when McCoy has gotten Jo situated, Aerie places the bear next to the sleeping girl, who remains completely undisturbed through the entire process.

After he closes the door to Joanna's room, McCoy turns to Aerie, his eyes hungry. But he doesn't make a move to her except to extend his hand. She takes it and they walk down the stairs, him in front of her. Once they're on the first floor again, McCoy doesn't hold back as he turns to face Aerie. Wordlessly, he moves his arms down her back, to her ass and pulls her towards him, lifting her so that she can wrap her legs around him. His mouth is on hers, and she doesn't know how he manages to navigate back to the family room without hitting anything but she doesn't care because he sets her down on the couch and looms over her and all she wants is to feel him on top of her. She drops one leg off the couch to give him room for his own body and he bends down over her, kissing her repeatedly. She feels him climb on the couch and then his weight is on her and Aerie moans because it feels so good to be this close, to feel his chest on hers, to feel him growing hard against her.

"Len," she gasps as he releases her mouth from his.

"My God, darlin', I couldn't stop thinkin' of what I'd do when we got a moment alone together," he murmurs against her chest and she feels his breath on her sternum. His hands clutch her breasts and Aerie bucks her hips against his without thinking.

For several minutes, there are no words – just their mouths on each other's bodies, their hands roving, exploring new valleys and plateaus of skin and muscle. McCoy finds the zipper on Aerie's dress and undoes it, pulling the bodice away from her chest and helping her free her arms from the delicate sleeves. He looks appreciatively at her bare midriff and heaving breasts in a sheer lilac bra but when his eyes meet hers, there's an unasked question in them.

"My back," she answers him. "Most of the tattoos are on my back."

He draws away from her so she can sit up and extract her legs from his and she turns around so he can see the tattoos, moving her hair over her shoulder so his view is unobstructed.

McCoy says nothing, enraptured by the work of art that is Aerie's back. The individual tattoos are tiny, but taken as a whole, they cover her entire back from her shoulders to below where her dress pools at her waist. Hesitantly, he reaches out and pushes the dress material down so he can see how far down her back the tattoos travel. They continue till just under the low-riding waistband of her sheer panties that match the lilac bra and McCoy sucks in a breath as he enjoys the view of her ass.

"Beautiful," he whispers, referring to more than the tattoos. Aerie turns her head over her shoulder, trying to see his reaction.

"You like them?"

"I like it all – the tattoos, you – breathtaking," he says as his head moves closer to her back so he can look more closely at each one, trying to guess which countries they represent. "Did you use the same artist for each of them?"

She nods. "I have a guy I go to when I visit my mom," she explains.

"He's done an amazing job," McCoy states almost reverently, tracing the patterns and colors on her back. He's never seen anything quite like it and even though he's never found tattoos particularly appealing, on her, they come together to tell a vibrant, gorgeous story. They're like a coded map of the world as she's experienced it. Aerie, with her blue hair and tats, is turning his previous notion of what he wants in a woman on its head.

She feels his breath on her lower spine a moment before she feels his lips and she leans into him with a sigh of contentment as he slowly moves his mouth up her back, stopping only to undo her bra and slide the straps down her shoulders. Aerie freezes as she hears a noise and feels his smile against her skin.

"Don't worry," he murmurs, the hot breath tickling her, "She's not waking up anytime soon."

"You say that, but I'm the only one half naked in here," Aerie mutters, relaxing her shoulders under the ministrations of his hands.

"We can change that," he says, pulling away from her. She turns around again to face him and in doing so, discards her bra. His eyes study her from the top of her head down to her feet, one resting on the couch, the other on the floor. She lets him take in the view as she leans over and reaches out to the hem of his pullover, tugging it up. He lifts his hands above his head to assist and when the pullover is off, she repeats the process with his tee shirt, but this time, he holds her arms still after she gets the shirt over his head.

"Don't move," he says in a low voice and when his breath hits her, she realizes why. Her breasts are practically in his face and he takes full advantage of it, lowering his hands to grab each one and burying his face in the valley between them. He tweaks her nipples, rubs them, plays relentlessly with them until they are hard and pebbled and then he takes one in his mouth, while wrapping an arm around her back to pull her onto his lap. Aerie straddles Len with a groan, the feeling of his tongue laving her nipple so exquisite, she worries she might come and be forced to explain how long it's been since she's let someone else pleasure her like this. He switches his oral attentions to her other nipple and she rests her arms on his shoulders, her hands tangling in his hear.

"Oh God, Len," she pleads. "You feel so good."

Once his desire for her breasts has been at least somewhat sated, he wraps his other arm around her back and seeks her mouth with his.

"I don't know if I've ever seen anything more beautiful than you," he whispers before kissing her passionately, his tongue in her mouth. At the same time, he guides her back down to the couch so they're lying down once more. He grinds against her, his cock fully erect, and she matches his rhythm, canting her hips up to meet his, delighting in the sensations he's eliciting through the repeated contact.

"Darlin', the things I want to do to you," he gasps as her hands play with the button and zipper of his pants.

"Tell me," she demands.

"I'm not sure I should. They're all filthy," he replies as she brushes her hands against his boxer briefs. He props himself up, bracing his arms on either side of her.

She gives him a hard look. "I've got blue hair and I'm covered in tattoos. There's nothing you're gonna say that'll shock me."

He gives her a smirk, as though ready to meet her challenge but still, he hesitates, even as she reaches a hand under the waistline of his boxers and strokes him, appreciating his size and girth.

"I'm not exactly shy," she starts again. "You shouldn't be shy about what you want. Chances are, I want it too."

He raises an eyebrow and lowers himself onto her, whispering something in her ear. He then shifts to make eye contact with her. "I don't want you to think I'm disrespecting you or looking at this as a one-night stand –"

"You dirty dog," she cuts him off with an unreadable look on her face but when his face falls, she laughs.

"I'm kidding, Len," she assures him and he raises his eyebrow at her, ready to mutter some curses back at her but she stops him by touching his cheek softly.

"Yes," she whispers, her hand caressing his face. "Yes, let's do it. I want it. I want you. Stop worrying about whether you're being a gentleman."

That's all she has to say. He pulls his pants and boxers down low enough to free his cock and she cups the outsides of her breasts as he bends down and licks the interior edges of her cleavage to create enough lubrication and then his cock is between her breasts and he's thrusting as she pushes her tits together to give him the tightness she knows he wants. The head of his cock pokes out of her cleavage as he thrusts and she drops her chin to her chest so she can lick it as it peeks out. He moans with each lick and begins to thrust more slowly, until his cock is still, resting between her breasts so she can work her tongue over it. Soon, she's sucking on the head and she realizes their objectives have changed so she stops, moves to sit up, and he looks down at her in confusion. She pushes him lightly in the chest with a devious smile and he understands, lying back on the couch, so she can reposition herself between his legs and focus solely on giving him head.

"My God… yes… Aerie… yes…," he murmurs as she sucks and strokes. He tangles his hands in her hair and caresses her as she pleasures him, her mouth drawing noises out of him that he didn't know he could make. Soon, he's thrusting into her mouth and she's no longer fucking him with her lips; he's fucking her mouth.

"Daddy?" a voice calls out from the far end of the kitchen and they both freeze, their eyes mirror images of panic. In an instant, Aerie pulls away, but stays crouching, ready to grab a blanket and throw it over herself. She has no idea where her bra is but she pulls her dress back up and onto her shoulders so she isn't half naked.

"Stay there, Jo," McCoy calls out as he pulls his pants up from his ankles and quickly throws his t-shirt on. "What's wrong, sweetie?" he asks as he rises up from the couch and walks towards the kitchen.

"Is Aerie gone? I didn't say goodbye," comes the reply and Aerie curses softly because she doesn't want him to lie but she also has no idea what she looks like. Will a seven-year-old know what JBF hair is? Probably not. So she gets up from the couch while she hears McCoy talking to Joanna and joins them in the kitchen, quickly snatching her cardigan from the back of a chair and throwing it on in an effort to hide her bra-less, unzipped state.

"Hey Joanna," she says softly, crouching down in front of the half-asleep child.

Joanna's eyes light up and she crosses the space between them quickly, hugging Aerie tightly. "Will I see you again?" she asks as Aerie hugged her back. Aerie looks up at McCoy who's watching them with a mix of amusement and embarrassment.

"I think so," she replies and he smiles at her. "I sure hope so. Now go on back to bed, okay?" She pulls away and the girl nods, turning around and moving towards the upstairs. McCoy follows after her and Aerie goes back to the family room to find her bra, which she finally discovers behind the couch. She's hooking it back together and pulling her dress sleeves back up when McCoy saunters back in.

"I should probably go," she says to him shyly, unsure of why she feels timid around a man who was balls-deep in her mouth just moments ago.

"I guess so," he sighs. "I'm so sorry. Normally, she doesn't get up…I didn't mean to put you in that position." He looks at her with the same mix of guilt and bashfulness that she feels and her heart melts. She approaches him and turns around.

"Zip me up?" she asks. He does and after, his fingers linger on the edge of the dress.

"Let me make tonight up to you," she begins and he cuts her off.

"You? I'm the one who invited you over for a romantic dinner, then added my daughter to the mix, then promised you my kid wouldn't walk in on us. I should be making things up to you."

"Okay, then make it up to me by coming to my place the next Friday you're free. I'll make dinner and we can re-do tonight, with a different outcome…if you want." Aerie turns and looks at him.

"Deal?" she asks, worried that maybe he's decided she's more trouble than she's worth.

"Of course," he replies. "You sure? I'd understand if you ran away in terror, you know."

She grins. "Nope. It'll take more than this to scare me away." She kisses his cheek and he wraps his arms around her for a moment, just holding her close.

"I'm free next Friday," he whispers in her ear. "Joce and I switched weekends so if you really mean it –"

"See you Friday," she says definitively. "And, if we're lucky, maybe even before then, around campus." He smiles and lets her go, helping her find her bag and coat, then walking her to the door, giving her a chaste kiss on the lips.

As Aerie drives home, she realizes her feelings for Leonard McCoy are a lot more intense than she'd anticipated. She isn't sure she's ready to feel this way about someone, especially with the changes she wants to make to her life. Still, another part of her argues, it's only been one date. Why not see where it might go?


	5. Chapter 5

Every now and then, a faculty member invites Aerie to their paper presentation, or a lunchtime discussion on topics they’re considering for an article or treatise. She always accepts the offers, her schedule permitting, because it builds up goodwill with the professors and, depending on the topic, it’s enjoyable and interesting for Aerie as well.

On this particular Tuesday, Aerie is attending a lunch discussion for a paper one of her faculty members is working on. The topic isn’t one she particularly cares for – macroeconomics – but the faculty member is one of her favorites and when she asks Aerie to attend, Aerie doesn’t hesitate to say yes.

The first few minutes of the discussion are unremarkable. Aerie’s professor is explaining the idea for her paper and Aerie begins to zone out when she notices her phone light up. She has a text from Len. Grabbing the phone and moving it to her lap, she opens the messages app to find out what he wants.

_Hey gorgeous, wanna grab lunch?_

Butterflies flutter in her stomach as she blushes at him calling her gorgeous.

Wish I could! I’m in a thing right now

_Oh?_

_A thing?_

_Could be kinky_

Ha

Not so much 

Faculty member asked me to sit in on a presentation

_So, you’re at the presentation?_

_Wearing one of those cute little dresses you wear so well_

She sends him an eye-roll emoji.

_Is it a big crowd?_

No

Just a few of us

Seminar room

_You sitting at a table?_

Yeah…..

I’m in the back, like normal

This time she adds a curious face emoji.

_Does the table have a modesty panel?_

Where you going with this?

It does

Means I can’t stretch my damn legs out

_Imagine me sitting right next to you_

_Imagine my hand on your thigh_

Len!

_Maybe you’ve got that one dress on_

_The one that flies open when it’s windy_

Aerie stops breathing for a few seconds and she feels her cheeks burning. But she says nothing to stop him.

_Maybe my hand touches your skin_

_Maybe it creeps up your thigh_

_Should I stop?_

No

Please don’t

_You want me to keep moving my hand up your thigh?_

_In front of your faculty?_

_Naughty_

_I like it_

_Love the way your skin feels_

_So soft and warm_

_Would you be wet if my hand made it that far?_

Um…

_I’ll take that as a yes_

_Of course you would_

_You’d feel so good_

_Bet you’re blushing right now_

_Wish I could be there to enjoy it_

 Aerie is clutching the phone tightly in her lap. Every part of her feels like it’s on fire and she doesn’t know how she’ll make it through the rest of the lunch talk.

_You okay?_

Oh yes

_You like this_

Maybe

_That’s a definite yes_

_I like it too_

_If you reached over to put your hand on my thigh_

_Moved it up a bit_

_You’d feel just how much I’m enjoying this_

She pictures Leonard in his office, hopefully with the door closed, sitting at his desk, maybe readjusting himself as his arousal grows.

_Would you like it if we found a nice room to be alone in?_

_Because I wouldn’t be satisfied with a quick feel_

_I want more_

_I want all of you_

_Wanna feel you fall apart under my touch_

You think mighty highly of your touch

_You’ll think highly of it too when I’m done with you_

Aerie already thinks well enough of the good doctor’s skills after only one date. She isn’t sure if he’s actually as incredible as she’s making him out to be in her head or if she has just been so intimacy-starved that anything would be mind-blowing. Somehow, deep down, she knows it’s the former but she isn’t ready to admit it to herself or him.

I’m listening

_After the thing, we leave together_

_Too impatient for the walk back to either office_

_I need to have you right there_

_We find a closet of some sort_

_I pull your dress aside_

_Run my hands up the outside of your thighs_

_To the waistband of your panties_

_Then I push those panties down_

_And feel your wetness_

_I start with one finger, then a second_

_A third when you beg for it_

“Aerie has been instrumental in helping me compile my latest collection of articles. Isn’t that right, Aerie?”

She is caught off-guard by her professor’s sudden mention of her name and instead of making a cogent response, Aerie moans. It’s a sexual sound – she isn’t sure how anyone could think it was anything other than sensuous. But she tries to add a cough at the end.

“Uh, yes. I’m mid-way through collecting articles on macroeconomics and emerging markets. And if you want, I have some fintech research I compiled for another search,” Aerie replies, so grateful she listened enough to hear someone recommend focusing on fintech within the paper.

“Thanks! Let’s talk after,” her professor replies, beaming at her. Aerie feels all kinds of conflicting emotions. She’s incredibly turned on and the thought has crossed her mind to leave the meeting and go directly to Len’s office so he can show her just how impressive his hands – and other parts – are. But she’s attending this to support her professor and generate interest among the other faculty in the services the library could offer. She needs to put her phone away and pay attention.

You have no idea how turned on I am

I just moaned in front of everyone

I have to put my phone away 

So I can focus on what’s happening

_I didn’t get you in trouble, did I?_

No

But you will if we keep this up

Let’s resume this soon…say Friday night? 

_Friday it is_

_Catch you later, darling_

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, I know. I'll make it up to you next week!


	6. Chapter 6

"I've always liked this part of the city," McCoy tells Aerie as she lets him into the brownstone Friday evening.

"It's a hike from here to the university," she replies. "But this is where I grew up until my parents split. My dad kept the house and now…well, here I am."

"You drive?" he asks as she takes his coat and hangs it in the coat closet.

"Kinda have to," she answers while nodding. "No subway line goes near the campus."

"I've never understood why they didn't extend one of the lines to campus," McCoy complains and Aerie doesn't disagree, instead walking down the hallway to the kitchen, beckoning McCoy to follow her, though he doesn't need any encouragement to stay close to her. He looks at the prints and photos on the walls of the hallway into the kitchen and observes that they're a mix of artwork and images from places all over the world.

The hallway leads into an open space with a kitchen, dining nook, and family room. The décor inside Aerie's place reminds McCoy of her office – fascinating, colorful, and a celebration of the locations Aerie has visited. He inhales the aromas wafting from the oven and smiles at Aerie.

"Looks like I've met my match in the cooking department."

"Don't say that till you've tasted it," Aerie says, indulging in some light self-deprecation before turning to the fridge. "What can I get you to – oh, hello!"

McCoy has come up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Not wasting time, are you?" she murmurs as she leans into him.

"I've been looking forward to tonight all week," he whispers in her ear and she turns around in his arms so she's facing him.

"Me too," Aerie says, kissing him. She lets the kiss deepen, opens her mouth so his tongue can press against her own. After a moment, she reluctantly pulls away. "I didn't spend all this time cooking for us to skip the food part. What do you want to drink?"

"Okay, fine," he grumbles, letting her go. "What're you having?"

"Just water for now, but there's beer in the fridge and bourbon on the bar cart," she replies, jerking her head in the direction of the cart. McCoy's eyes light up.

"Bourbon, huh? I think I will."

"With ice or no?" she asks.

"I'm good," he tells her and indeed he is. He's already started pouring himself a low ball of bourbon.

"So what smells so good?" he asks as he clinks his glass against Aerie's glass of water.

She smiles at him. "Get ready for some classic Greek dishes. I made dolmades – stuffed grape leaves, kolokithokeftedes – zucchini fritters, and moussaka – a potato, eggplant, and ground meat casserole."

"I've had dolmades and moussaka before but what was the other thing? The zucchini fritters?"

"Kolokithokeftedes," Aerie repeats with a grin.

"One more time?" McCoy requests.

"Kolokithokeftedes," she says again, her grin widening into a full-fledged smile.

"Okay, I'll just call them zucchini fritters," McCoy replies with a defeated grimace and Aerie laughs.

"Everything's ready – how do you feel about eating first and a tour of the place later?" she asks.

"You won't hear me complain if you're offering to feed me," McCoy answers.

"You? Not complaining?" she teases as she brings a casserole dish to the table.

* * *

"So this was your childhood home," McCoy says thoughtfully between bites of what he would easily classify as one of the top five meals he's ever eaten.

"Yep," Aerie responds. "My dad came over here – to the U.S. – in his late teens. When he'd saved enough money, he went back and brought my mom over. Eventually, they got married and then they bought this place. Well, I guess technically, my dad bought the place but my mom was the one who made it possible."

McCoy raises his eyebrow at her as he's chewing and Aerie continues.

"Dad wasn't really good at managing his money. Even back in Greece, as a teen, they knew he had a problem. He couldn't hold his drink. But mom loved him from the time they met in grade school and she always thought she could change him….turns out, you can't change an addict…not if they don't want to change. Once he brought my mom over, dad started spending more of his paychecks on other things – alcohol wasn't enough when he could get ahold of even better stuff. He'd spend all his money and then take out shady loans or gamble to replenish. So really, this should be my mom's house. She's the one who worked two jobs to make a down payment possible. And they bought the house in the early 80s when this neighborhood was considered the slums. Back then, the bars on the windows were necessary, not decorative."

McCoy makes a sound of sympathy and puts his hand over hers for a moment. She smiles.

"It's fine. I've had a pretty great life, overall," she says.

"So when your parents split up, your dad kept the house. Who got custody of you and your siblings?"

"My mom. My dad didn't want us but even if he had, there's no way a judge would've given him custody. I told my mom at the time that she could've gone after the house and gotten it but she had all this guilt over getting divorced – she wanted to leave my dad in a good place so he got the house."

"Where did your mom take you and your siblings?"

"We moved in with her sister in a studio up in NYC. My mom scrimped and saved and eventually we moved to a bigger place in Brooklyn. And then she met my stepdad. When they met, he was working for a firm that did international finance. He fell for my mom and they got married a year later." Aerie smiles, thinking about her stepdad.

"You really like him," McCoy states, seeing her obvious happiness from thinking about her stepdad. McCoy wants to tell Aerie how beautiful she is when she smiles but he's not sure how she'll take it. It sounds cheesy even in his head.

"Yeah. He's a really good man," she agrees, her smile deepening. "If not for him, I wouldn't have had a lot of the opportunities I've received. He offered to adopt us kids but my mom wanted us to keep our last name. She hated my dad but she was fiercely proud of our Greek heritage. My stepdad is American and she didn't want us all running around with an easy-to-pronounce last name like Smith. But he took us everywhere with him. I come by my love of traveling because of him."

He listens to her thoughtfully but Aerie realizes they've spent a chunk of time talking about her life.

"What about you?" she asks. "Tell me about your family."

McCoy tells her about growing up in Georgia, about his dad being a doctor, about summers working the farmland that surround the plantation home that's been in the McCoy family since before Georgia was a state. He tells her about meeting Jocelyn in high school, getting married, having a child, and watching his marriage fall apart. He ended up here, all these states away, because Jocelyn's new husband took a job here and he didn't want his daughter to be so far away. So he looked for a position and that's how he wound up at the university.

"You're a good dad," Aerie says softly, wondering if she would follow an ex to another city for the sake of a child.

McCoy shrugs. "I do the best I can," he replies, conflicting emotions in his eyes.

"You're kidding, right?" Aerie presses on. "Joanna adores you and with good reason. If my dad had been half the man you are…"

He looks at her and sees the wistfulness on her face.

"Guess I'm good with kids," he concedes. "Adults, not so much."

"Jocelyn seems like a bit of a handful," Aerie says carefully.

"Yeah," McCoy answers slowly. "I think she believed moving here would deter me and when it didn't, she was none too pleased."

"Why does she dislike you so much?" Aerie inquires, hoping she isn't overstepping her bounds.

McCoy sighs. "I wasn't as attentive to her as I could've been when I was in med school and it got worse when I finished my residency and went out to start my own practice. I worked long hours and she felt ignored. I should've been there more."

"But doctors work crazy hours. I thought everyone understood that," Aerie protests and he smiles at her willingness to defend him.

"It's one thing to understand it and another to experience it. And I'll admit that I threw myself into it – worked longer hours than I needed to because I wanted to succeed so badly," he says wearily.

Aerie wants to tell him she doesn't think it's a bad thing that he'd been so dedicated to his job but she doesn't know if it would matter to him. So she chooses a different tack.

"I think you're pretty successful – as a doctor and a dad," she says quietly. He looks over at her and the remorse on his face dissipates.

"What about you?" he asks her. "Will any angry exes be interrupting us tonight?"

She rolls her eyes and stands up with her plate. "All done?' she asks him, nodding to his own empty plate.

He hands it to her and follows her over to the kitchen with the casserole dish. They clear the table in silence and as they put things away, McCoy comes up behind Aerie.

"You never answered my question," he whispers as he rests his hands on her hips.

"Why is it important?" she sighs, leaning against him at the same time.

"Look, you know about my failed marriage – you got a bigger taste of it than I would have preferred. I want to know about you, Aerie. Anything you're willing to tell me."

"Okay, okay," she mutters, turning to him. "I've never been married. I dated a few people seriously but nothing ever worked out."

He pulls away to give her space and Aerie rubs her face in frustration. 'Why is it so hard to open up to people?' she wonders internally as he watches her thoughtfully.

"Can we sit?" she asks him.

"Sure," he replies and they move back to the now-clean table.

"My last relationship ended a couple of years ago," Aerie says in a flat tone, looking down at her hands. "Before that, we were happy. We lived together for a few years. I thought he was the one and that we'd end up married."

She pauses and McCoy remains quiet.

"We had a big fight and I kicked him out," Aerie says. "And since then, I haven't dated anyone."

She isn't sure she wants to go into more detail. But when he asks her what the fight was about, the words tumble out of her. Besides Nyota and her family, Aerie hasn't told anyone else why she ended what had appeared to be a near-perfect relationship.

"I got assaulted on the subway one night, heading home from a party I'd attended. I can't remember where Ben was that night – maybe at a happy hour with his co-workers? Anyway, it really rattled me." She adds the last sentence as though she's embarrassed to admit that something like an assault would bother her.

"My God, Aerie," McCoy says, anguish in his voice. "Of course it did. That would upset anyone."

"After it happened," she continues, knowing she has to keep going or she won't finish the story, "I didn't want to be on the subway. I didn't want to leave the house. We had always been a pretty social couple but I went through a couple of months where I just turned down every invitation to hang out with anyone. I can't explain it, but all I wanted to do was hide. Ben told me I was making too big a deal about it. He told me I was making things worse than they actually were. Told me I was a pessimist and depressed and needed help."

"The bastard," McCoy growls.

"In fairness, I have a psychiatrist, a therapist, and a bottle of anti-depressants that say he wasn't wrong about the depression and me needing help," Aerie replies ruefully.

"How long have you been on anti-depressants?" McCoy asks and Aerie can tell by the change in his tone that he's moved to doctor-mode.

She sighs. "I'm not even sure. Since my late teens? The prescription has changed a few times over the years."

"And he knew you were being treated for depression?" McCoy asks, a snarl in his words. Aerie nods her head yes. "It makes it even worse that he would throw your condition at you after something so awful." McCoy is good and angry now. "Depression isn't a joke," he continues. "I've seen how it can tear a person apart. And the uptick in cases we've been dealing with at the hospital in the past couple of years? Let's just say you're far from alone in your struggles."

Aerie smiles at McCoy.

"Thanks," she says quietly. "I know depression is a real illness, just like any other. I've known that for a long time. And I usually don't let anyone else make me feel ashamed for what I do to cope with it. But Ben loved to point to my depression as the reason for any flaw of mine that he couldn't reconcile himself with. And it sucked. I should have called him out on it long before I finally did."

Now McCoy gives her a half smile. "Relationships will do that to ya," he confirms and Aerie gets the distinct idea he's speaking from his own experiences. As if he can read her mind, he nods.

"I struggled with my own bouts of depression - probably a big reason my marriage didn't survive."

Aerie lifts an eyebrow in a silent plea for him to continue speaking.

"When I got done with my residency, I got a job at Emory. It was exactly what we'd wanted – to be back in Atlanta. Unfortunately, my dad was diagnosed with ALS at the same time."

"I'm so sorry," Aerie whispers.

"I told you earlier that Joce hated how much time I spent at work. But the truth is more complicated than that. I did spend a lot of time away from the house. And most of it was at work. But I also spent a lot of time with my dad. The ALS progressed quickly in him. There came a point…"

McCoy stops talking, his eyes glazing over. Aerie puts her hand on his arm and it seems to snap him out of his reverie, at least temporarily.

"Dad asked me to help him end things. He hated being immobilized, hated the idea of needing a ventilator to breathe. I tried to talk him out of it but in the end, he was my father and I didn't want to watch him suffer…"

Aerie tightens her hold on him not to bring him back to the conversation but out of pure comfort.

"Anyway, after that, I was on anti-depressants for a time. And then the marriage fell apart but it was funny. By then, I didn't feel so depressed. I wasn't happy about it but it didn't feel as weighty as Dad's death. I think it angered Jocelyn to see me handle the divorce without falling apart like I did over my dad."

McCoy lifts his face to look Aerie in the eyes, wondering what he might see in those brown eyes. To his immense relief, all he sees is compassion and sympathy.

"I hijacked your story, darlin'. You were telling me about your ex – I'm ready to hear the good part where you kicked that jackass to the curb," McCoy prompts her.

Before she continues with her own story she tells him, "Thank you for telling me about your dad. I know that had to have been hard for you."

He gives her a sad half-smile and nods his head for her to continue with her own tale.

"I realized I couldn't stay with him," Aerie says. "He was so sure I was overreacting and being hysterical. I loved him. We were so good together in so many ways but he couldn't connect with me on certain things and I couldn't get past the difference in how we dealt with my depression. He was ashamed of it. He hated how open I was about it."

There are tears in her eyes and McCoy wants to pull her into his arms but he stays in his seat.

"I feel like things have gotten harder over the past two years," she says softly. "There are weeks now when every day is awful – it's a constant parade of horribles anymore and I don't know if I can let myself be vulnerable again, you know?" she says as she wipes her eyes. "I need to get through each day and I don't have the time or the energy to put myself out there only to have my heart broken because the person I fall for isn't who I thought they were."

This time, McCoy does get up and come around to where Aerie is sitting.

"Darlin'," he murmurs as he kneels next to her chair, touching her cheek softly. "Your ex was an asshole who didn't deserve you."

"Yes and no," she answers woefully. "He was an ass on this particular topic. But he was also just a normal guy. When shit went bad, he was content – he was able – to stick his head in the sand and deny. I can't do that. I don't know how to turn it all off and I don't know how to make it better."

Now she's crying in earnest.

"You're not alone," McCoy consoles her as he sits down in the seat next to her and pulls Aerie in his arms. "What you're feeling – you aren't alone in that, I promise."

She looks up at him with relief in her eyes.

"I know I've felt it," he murmurs. "And I would never tell you you're overreacting."

She smiles. "Thank you."

McCoy gives her that grin – the one that makes her feel like jelly. He reaches out and tucks a strand of hair that has fallen out of her up-do behind her ear.

"So, you haven't wanted to date anyone but here we are right now. Why?" He asks the question gently.

"I'm not even sure," she replies truthfully. "You're easy to talk to, easy to look at…I want to know more about you, want to share my thoughts with you…"

"Can't ask for much more than that," McCoy responds with a smile and Aerie grins back at him before getting serious once more.

"I should warn you – I expect a lot of myself, of everyone around me…I push people away when things get hard and I'm not always good about communicating when and why I'm upset."

"Well, I'm pretty sure you just described most everyone I know, darlin'. There's nothing wrong with expecting the best from yourself, from the people who matter to you. And I'm not exactly warm and fuzzy when I'm upset either. Don't be too hard on yourself."

"But there's a chance my ex was right," she counters. "Not about me taking what happened on the subway too seriously – I know he was wrong about that. When I ended things with him, he told me my standards would always be too high – that I was too demanding of those around me. And he might've had a point."

"He didn't. You can ask for the moon because there's someone out there who will give it to you," McCoy assures her and Aerie looks him in the eyes.

"Are you offering?" she asks with a half-smile.

"Maybe. I'm full of flaws. Not sure you'd want me."

"I do. I want you."

They stare at one another for a moment and McCoy pulls Aerie tight to him. She kisses him furiously, her arms around his neck, fingernails digging into his back. McCoy picks her up and sits her on the table and she wraps her legs around him as he pulls her close. Their tongues tangle and their hands yank at each other's tops, neither caring where the clothes end up as long as they're off. Aerie bucks her hips against McCoy and he meets each push with his own hips, pulling at her buttocks, almost lifting her off the table to press himself and his arousal against her. Moans of approval come from both of them as they explore each other with their hands. Vaguely, Aerie is aware that he's trying to say something between the wet, deep kisses they're sharing.

"What?" she asks dazedly as she pulls away, overcome by the taste, scent, and feel of him.

"This table…it's great. But is there somewhere else you want to do this?" McCoy has the same awe-struck look in his eyes.

"Bedroom," she murmurs, gently pushing him back so she can get down and lead the way.

This is no tour of the house – both of them have long forgotten the offered tour and neither of them care about anything besides getting to the bedroom and continuing what they've started on the table. She leads him up the stairs and down the hallway to her bedroom, stopping once to let him press her against the wall and hitch her legs around his hips while he fondles her breasts and licks into her mouth.

With Aerie braced against the wall, her legs wrapped tight around him, McCoy takes a moment to dip his head and suckle on one of her pebbled, hard nipples. Her groan makes him suck harder, nip gently at the brown areola with his teeth and the arch of her back tells him she likes it as much as her gasp does. He repeats his actions with her other nipple before releasing her and continuing to the bedroom.

They'd lost their tops downstairs, her blouse and bra scattered on the floor next to his button-down and undershirt. Now, as she pulls him to the bed, they remove their shoes and begin pawing at each other's bottoms – pants for him, a skirt for her.

"I want you," he whispers against her skin as he undoes the zipper and yanks her skirt down. She steps out of the pool of fabric at her feet and looks at him, her chestnut eyes burning.

"Len," she sighs as she pushes him down on the bed and kneels between his legs. She leans over till her face is right above his groin and looks up at him.

"How much would you like to bet that I can get your pants off without using my hands?" She gives him a devious grin and moves both arms behind her back.

He cocks an eyebrow at her. "Look, sweetheart. I already know how talented that mouth of yours is but I'm not sure you can pull my pants off with your teeth."

She favors him with a pout. "Are you saying you don't want me to try not using my hands?"

"I'm just sayin –" but she interrupts him.

"I guess you don't want me to lick you from the base of your cock to its tip. Maybe you would prefer I don't suck the head. It's too bad because I love the taste of your precum. I wanna lick the underside of your cock, feeling that vein as it gets harder. But I suppose you'd prefer I don't take you deeper and deeper into my mouth until you –"

McCoy pushes her aside and pulls his pants and boxer briefs down, arching up so he can pull them all the way off. Aerie laughs as he kicks the noxious clothes away from his legs.

"Looks like I won that bet," she cracks.

"You did not," he sputters. "You didn't even get close to taking my pants off with your teeth."

"Who said anything about teeth?" she says wickedly. "I only bet you I could get your pants off without using my hands. And I most definitely did not use my hands."

"Why you little…" McCoy grabs Aerie by her waist and gently tosses her down beside him, causing her to squeal.

"That's one way to get me naked, you crafty she-devil," he drawls as he tickles her, delighting in the laughs that tear through her. As she settles down, he props his head up on one elbow, enjoying the view of her chest rising and falling while she catches her breath.

Without a word he kisses her – a brief, sweet kiss that leaves her wanting more. But instead of kissing her again, he moves down, kissing her sternum, then her stomach and then lower till he hovers above her panties.

"These have got to go," he says, meeting her eyes with a devious gleam in his own. Before she can say anything, he nips at the right-hand side of the waistline and begins to pull them down with his teeth.

"Shit," Aerie mumbles. "They're part of my A-Team rotation. Please don't rip them."

"Shoulda thought of that before you bet me you could get my pants off without using your hands," he grumbles, moving to the other side of her panties and tugging with his teeth.

Her worries are unfounded because despite his threat, McCoy pulls her panties gently and when he has them down to her upper thighs, he backs away with a triumphant look on his face.

"I'd tell you to beat that but we both know you can't," he smirks. Aerie is sorely tempted to stuff her panties straight down his throat when she's done pulling them off but she opts to try being a graceful loser instead.

"Maybe I should practice using my teeth on something else," she murmurs demurely as she reaches over and boops his erect cock. His face falls.

"Did you just flick your finger against my penis?" he asks incredulously, forgetting all about her threat to use her teeth on his most delicate of organs.

"Sure did," she readily admits with an insouciant smile. "You ever notice how penises just kinda jump around and twitch all by themselves?" she asks him in complete seriousness, like he hasn't spent his life dealing with this entity in his pants. "I think they're fascinating," she continues, oblivious to his state of confusion. "I've always wanted to bop one and see if it would bounce back like a door stop spring. Turns out it does!"

As flustered as he is by her actions and words, he can't help but grin at her because she's the perfect mix of sensual and goofy and he thinks he might be falling for this woman. She laughs and kisses him. Yeah, he's definitely head over heels for her. And the realization doesn't even bother him.

McCoy pulls away from Aerie and looks her over. She feels suddenly shy as he examines her but the smile he gives her when his eyes reach hers again puts any fears she might have out of her mind. She moves her hands up his chest, across his broad shoulders and shivers with the anticipation of what happens next. He watches her, taking in how her eyes rove over him, her smile of appreciation as she touches him, the desire that brings a flush to her cheeks. When he feels like he can't take it another second longer, he brings an arm around her waist and pulls her atop him. With his free hand, he cups her chin, kissing her slowly, deeply, thoroughly.

Their limbs twine as they lay together above the covers, kissing each other, touching each other. Fully naked, they continue to kiss, continue rubbing against one another and it doesn't take long for him to ascertain how wet she is, how ready she is for him. He rolls over so he's on top of her.

"Good lord, Aerie," he moans.

"I need you inside me," she gasps as his fingers stroke her mound.

She doesn't have to ask a second time.

He knows his way around a woman's body – that had been pretty clear from their first date but now, there's no doubt in her mind. The way he touches her, the way he enters her – slow and sure thrusts that make her back arch into him – he isn't a selfish lover. And as he wraps one arm under and around her, pulling her close to him, she understands he won't be satisfied till she is.

McCoy makes love to Aerie slowly, bringing her to the edge several times only to back away and start over. And there is no question in either person's mind. This is making love. The look in his eyes, the way she trembles as he pushes against her, the soft words they whisper in one another's ears. Whether either of them meant for it to end up like this is inconsequential. They are treating one another reverently, each touch soft, each look filled with emotions neither is completely ready to label. When she finally comes, it's fierce and Aerie can't keep the cry from tumbling out of her while McCoy caresses her forehead and kisses her tenderly. He comes only a little bit after her own orgasm, his own cry muffled by her shoulder.

After, they curl up against each other and he strokes her hair while she runs her fingers in imaginary patterns along his chest and arm.

"Do you…would you like to stay?" she asks, surprised to find that she doesn't want the night to end, doesn't want to be alone after what they've just shared. He gives her a lazy smile that she decides is nothing but pure sex.

"I was thinking about feigning sleep so you wouldn't kick me out," he replies. "I'd love to stay."

Aerie has been with men who could pleasure her and men who could last through the night. Up till now, those two categories have been, sadly, very separate. There was one guy, just after undergrad, who fucked her eleven times in one night. She imagines if she tells McCoy that, he won't be satisfied until he's had her twelve times. But as it is, knowing little about her past, his nine times is still more than respectable and given that he makes sure she comes every time, Mr. Eleven pales in comparison. She wonders what the chances are that she's managed to meet not just one, but two marathon lovers in her life. In the morning, they wake tangled around one another, like a human pretzel. Still, neither makes any attempt to pull away and before she knows it, he's inside her once more and she's calling his name repeatedly, begging for more. He is very willing to oblige and the morning passes in a blur of pleasure and laughter because, of the many things they agree on, one is the humor underlying sex. Sure, it feels good, and neither would say no to a healthy amount of experimentation, but the whole concept is absurd on some level and the sounds two bodies make when coming together – who can help giggling at that? They're both relieved to discover the other is equally amused by the oddity of sex.

At a certain point, Aerie's stomach rumbles. She looks at the clock.

"Shit, it's almost noon," she exclaims.

"Explains why I'm so hungry," McCoy grumbles.

She gives him a look because Aerie can't think of a bigger insult than failure to take care of your guest and though she's pretty sure she's satisfied him sexually, she feels guilty that they've made it this far into the day and she hasn't offered to feed him. But she also knows he's a crank and the kind of person who would just ask her for food if he were that hungry. So she counters.

"Is that why you buried your face between my legs for what had to be a good hour?"

"Naw," he says with a smirk. "I did that because I like hearing you scream."

She blushes, thinking about all the things she'd said while he had pleasured her repeatedly.

"Let's get some lunch," Aerie proposes, getting out of bed and stretching, her limbs sore from being bent and spread every which way. It is, she decides, the best kind of sore.

They throw on a couple of robes she has lying around and Aerie smiles at the image of McCoy in one of her tiny, silk robes. Downstairs, they help themselves to leftovers before helping themselves to each other once more. Aerie is certain she's never had a date like this and no man has ever satisfied her like the one sitting next to her on the couch, alternating between feeding her strawberries and kissing her stupid. By the time 3pm hits, they've reached the unspoken agreement that he's staying another night, and they jump in the shower together, testing just how structurally sound the remodel she just paid for is. He fucks her standing as the hot water pours over both of them and Aerie wonders why, so many times later, he still feels so good inside her. Normally shower sex sucks but with McCoy? Hell, this is as good as anything else they've done so far. As she comes down from another orgasm, she wonders if she's going to get bored of the sensation of him stretching her out and filling her. She supposes a two-night date is one way to find out.

They spend the evening between watching movies on the couch and fucking each other in every position and location they can think of. There is no part of her house that they don't come together in and during the downtime, they tell each other all about themselves, the movies on the TV just background noise.

Late in the night, they make their way back to her bedroom and spoon one another, Aerie thinking they'll quickly fall asleep. But a familiar hardness against her back causes her to turn around to McCoy.

"Oh my God, Len, how have you not dried up yet?" she teases, while straddling him.

"What can I say? It's been a while – lots of pent-up energy," he responds as he reaches up to fondle her breasts while she grinds against him.

"You've outlasted my vibrator at this point," she informs him as he thrusts up and enjoys the view of her breasts bouncing.

"That's really all I've ever really wanted," he replies wryly. "To be better than a vibrator."

"Ooooh," she moans as he hits her in just the right spot. "You don't need to worry. Sex toys have nothing on this." He makes her come twice in a row for the compliment before his own orgasm.

Exhausted, they fall asleep in each other's arms.

Sunday morning, Aerie awakens with a familiar anxiety – the end of the weekend blues. But then she feels an arm around her and a breath against the back of her neck and the past two days rush through her mind. Have they really just stayed at her place all weekend? And what will she do when he finally puts his clothes on and leaves? Before she can figure out the answer to that question, his lips are on her neck and she turns to face him, happy to have the distraction of his body against hers. Anything she's been planning to accomplish during the weekend is clearly not happening now and she's oddly okay with that. What's going through boxes in the attic compared to having a man heap lavish attention on your every sexual need? Who cares about grocery shopping when you could give head instead? The garden can wait as long as he wants to stroke her into happy oblivion. And beyond that, Aerie's enraptured by every word McCoy has to say. She loves learning about his childhood in Georgia, his antics at college and med school – she can't remember the last time someone has held her interest like this.

Sunday evening, when he finally, reluctantly, grabs his pants and begins to dress in order to depart, McCoy feels a gloom fall over him. He doesn't want to go. The weekend has been beyond what he hoped for and a part of him wants to keep it going but he has a shift at the hospital starting at 7pm. The fun is over for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any idea on what city they're in? How about which university I'm modeling off of? Your guesses are appreciated!


	7. Chapter 7

It doesn't happen the minute she shuts the door after McCoy leaves the house, but shortly after he leaves, Aerie starts to feel a panic bloom within her chest. Some of it, she attributes to the fact that she forgot to take yesterday's antidepressant and she's late taking today's. This, despite the fact that McCoy reminded her yesterday to take her pill. It's been a long time since she missed a dose or was late taking one and she isn't exactly sure if her newfound nervousness is because of that or if it's because she just let a man spend an entire weekend with her and what the hell was she thinking?

What have they done? Why has she let him get so close to her so quickly? This is why she should have sought out more one-night stands. Now she's gone and burned through over a year's worth of sexual frustration and what if he thinks she loves him? What if SHE thinks she might love him? Good lord. It's only the second date – a second date that lasted all weekend, but still. The more she thinks about it, Aerie feels embarrassed that she's let her guard down, that she's let someone see her roughest edges and shared with a practical stranger her biggest fears. The sex was great but it's the talking, the touches, and the long looks that make her cringe inside. The more she replays the weekend in her head, the worse she feels. She's in no place to start a serious relationship. She wants to move away from this town, to start over somewhere else. How is she supposed to do that if she lets this man in? And besides, there's no way McCoy is as wonderful as the weekend indicates. Sure, right now, under the haze of getting some (well, okay, a lot – she got a lot as her sore muscles are happy to remind her), he seems perfect for her. But Aerie knows how this works. The flaws will appear. She'll try to ignore them because she's so caught up in her emotions for the man but inevitably, they'll end up separating because their differences will be insurmountable. She's already played this game – why would she go back for more?

She wants to go back for more because he is beautiful. Not just to look at, though goddamn, is he a perfect arrangement of everything she wants in a man. But beyond that, he is beautiful inside. He's like an M&M – crunchy, hard exterior, but soft goodness on the interior. She wrinkles her forehead. Maybe she needs to stop comparing men to candy. Still, it's true. For all his bluster and gruffness, there's a soulful, loving man underneath and if Aerie is being completely honest with herself, she realizes she isn't as worried that he'll disappoint her as she is that she'll end up falling short of his needs and expectations. Why would a man like that want her? What happens when the sex grows stale? Relationships are so much more than sex and what if she doesn't have enough to offer?

* * *

Initially, McCoy doesn't notice her avoidance. He has back to back overnight shifts Sunday and Monday and then Tuesday is his day for resident meetings. Wednesday he teaches. But on Thursday, he realizes Aerie isn't answering his texts. He's only texted her a couple of times – once, late Sunday night to tell her how much he enjoyed the weekend. It had been 4am so he hadn't expected an immediate response. Then he texted her sometime Tuesday to say hi. Texting isn't something McCoy's really big on so her lack of response hasn't seemed so weird. It's more the absence of any communication from her that finally makes him realize there might be something wrong.

After their first date, Aerie had moved him to another librarian for research assistance. They'd both agreed it made sense if they were going to get involved to keep things separate professionally. But that now meant he emailed a different librarian for assistance. So if she wanted to contact him, she couldn't use work as an excuse (and vice versa).

McCoy stares at his phone. There's always the chance that her week has just been really busy. God knows his has been. Maybe he should call her and they could do lunch, something they'd talked about doing as he was leaving Sunday. They'd see each other and everything would be fine. After all, it had been an amazing weekend. What could have changed between the last time they'd seen one another and now? He picks up the phone and dials her extension.

Aerie looks over at her phone when it rings and winces as she sees his name on the caller ID. Part of her wants nothing more than to pick up the phone. She longs to hear his southern twang in her ear, that deep voice telling her how much he cares about her. But she can't let this continue. It's never going to work out. Better a little heartsickness right now than untold amounts of tears and heartache later.

When the call goes to voicemail, McCoy grows even more concerned. Is she out sick? Or is she not answering for some other reason? He can't help but suspect the latter and he wonders just what has changed since Sunday.

* * *

"I say this to you with nothing but love, but you're being a fucking idiot right now," Nyota tells Aerie as they work on the never-ending attic clean-up Thursday night.

Aerie remains silent but she knows her friend is right.

"Just talk to him," Nyota continues, her exasperation clear from the way she's standing, one hand on her hip.

"I will," Aerie replies. "I promise. I just haven't figured out what to say yet."

"What happened?" Nyota persists. "I thought you two really hit it off."

"We did," Aerie practically wails. "We had a great time together. It was amazing. But Ny, you know it won't stay like that. And I want to get out of here anyway. I shouldn't get involved in something serious right now."

"I know relationships change," Nyota replies evenly. "But that doesn't mean they have to get worse. What if this is a really good thing you're passing up?"

"And what if we end up hating each other and then you're stuck between two friends?" Aerie challenges.

"Maybe that's a risk worth taking?" Nyota shoots back with a sparkle in her eyes.

"I just don't think I have it in me right now," Aerie replies sadly. "And I think it would break my heart for him to realize I'm not as great as he might think I am."

"Well, if you keep ignoring him and running away from him, I'm pretty sure he'll stop thinking you're so wonderful," Ny cracks with a look of mild disapproval.

Aerie doesn't say anything because she knows Nyota is right. She owes it to Len to at least tell him she can't pursue anything with him. But the thought of seeing him face to face fills her with such a mixture of longing and sadness that she wonders how long she can put off the hard conversation.

* * *

The librarians are no longer considered faculty but in a move to appease them, they have been given one spot on the faculty senate, said spot to be rotated through the library staff yearly. It's Aerie's year to attend faculty senate meetings and she finds the monthly meetings during the school year to be more a waste of her time than anything else. It isn't like she's going to contribute to the conversation and even if she does, she knows what to expect – a thinly-veiled comment about how her input doesn't really matter since she isn't really faculty. Still, she goes to every meeting because it's what's expected of her.

Having sat through several months worth of meetings already, Aerie knows McCoy only shows up every now and then when something on the agenda directly affects the medical school. She's pretty sure, based on the lack of medical school items on the agenda, that she won't see him there. But, of course, because everything she expects never turns out quite right, there he is. She comforts herself with the thought that she's tucked away in the back and he will never notice her. But then Nyota sits beside her and Aerie gets nervous. Sure enough, at the end of the meeting, McCoy turns and their eyes meet across the auditorium.

"I've gotta run," she says hurriedly to Nyota, grabbing her purse and slipping out the back door as the doctor makes his way over to them. Nyota doesn't even have a chance to stop Aerie.

* * *

McCoy is annoyed because he shouldn't have to be at this damn faculty senate meeting but Jim wants to talk to him afterward and so here he is. There are a million other, better things he could be doing but he knows Jim likes having familiar faces in the audience and he also knows Jim has been reviewing the old plans for the library expansion. He hopes that's what Jim wants to discuss after the senate and he wonders if he should reach out to Aerie again to ask her if she can make it over by the end of the senate to discuss the library expansion with the two men. He's worried she'll see any contact he tries to make at this point as an excuse to talk to her and maybe it is but he's still so befuddled by her sudden silence.

As the senate comes to an end, he takes a look around the room and a shock of blue hair in the back of the auditorium catches his eye. Aerie is here already, standing next to Nyota. They make eye contact and if Leonard wasn't already convinced she's trying to avoid him, he sure is now. The panic that registers on her face makes him wince, even as he moves up the aisle, towards the two women. Before he can get anywhere close to them, Aerie is gone, rushing out of the auditorium and McCoy sighs. What the hell has happened since Sunday? He trudges up the steps to say hi to Nyota and they talk briefly. She doesn't have any answers about Aerie's behavior and her advice – to go over to Aerie's house and confront her – would be fine except for the fact that it's his weekend with Joanna and he's not dragging his daughter along with him to figure out why Aerie has decided he has the plague. As it is, he works late tonight and won't be able to pick Joanna up till tomorrow morning anyway. Aerie's lucky if she is trying to avoid him because he'll be inaccessible the next couple of days.

* * *

"What's going on between Bones and the hot librarian?" Kirk asks Nyota as they watch McCoy stalk off after the faculty senate. Nyota wants to run after Len and comfort him but instead she reluctantly turns her gaze to Kirk. She hadn't known what to say to McCoy when he'd joined her at the back of the auditorium, other than to tell him he needs to talk to Aerie face to face. It sucks sitting on knowledge you can't share with one of your closest friends and Nyota is going to give Aerie a piece of her mind the next time she sees her. But for now, she has to handle this man-child. Only, when she looks in Jim's eyes, she sees actual concern. He's not just poking fun at his best friend.

"I don't know," she sighs. "I think Aerie has cold feet."

"Really? I thought they'd only gone out a couple of times," Jim replies.

"I guess they hit it off well enough that she's scared of the inevitable end," Nyota answers, somehow less concerned about telling Jim why Aerie's being so weird than she is about telling Len. What's Jim gonna do with the info anyway?

"That's a shame. He really likes her," Jim says and for one of the first times since she's known him, he doesn't follow up with some gross comment about how hot Aerie is. Nyota's slightly impressed. Maybe Jim is more than a walking penis after all. But they don't have much time to chat because Jim has to catch up to Len and discuss the residency program with him.


	8. Chapter 8

McCoy decides he's had enough of this nonsense after the faculty senate escapade. He can't stop thinking about the look on Aerie's face when their eyes met as he makes his rounds and he feels an agitation inside him that he hasn't felt since things with Jocelyn fell apart. It's not a great feeling and if he's a bit more snappish than usual tonight, hopefully the staff will forgive him. One way or another, he's decided he's gonna talk to Aerie before the day is over. But then work gets in the way and before he knows it, it's almost 11:30pm. He looks over at Doctor Chapel as the two of them fill out paperwork.

"You mind if I take off a little early?" he asked her.

"Sure, why not?" Christine Chapel replies. Because if there's one person who deserves a break in this place, it's Len McCoy. He's a tireless professional and she loves working with him (despite his crusty personality) but the man could use a vacation. Short of that, she's more than happy to cover the last two hours of the shift without him so he can at least get some needed rest.

Even though the library is nowhere near the hospital or his car parked in the garage, McCoy finds himself walking to the multi-story building. It closes at midnight, though the librarians should have left long before then. McCoy looks at his watch. It's midnight now and as he climbs the steps of the library, he sees a security guard getting ready to lock the doors. He pulls out his university ID and the guard waves him into the building, telling him he'll be able to get out and if he needs back in, just to swipe his card in the reader by the left-most set of doors.

"Thanks," he replies. "Is there anyone still inside?"

"Yep," the guard answers. "One of the librarians is somewhere in there. Office is still lit up with the door open. Haven't seen her yet but she's probably out in the stacks. Last I checked, the third floor stacks were still lit up."

McCoy gives the man a puzzled look and the guard clarifies.

"The stacks have motion-detecting lights so if you get out on a floor and it's dark, no one's there. Look for the floor with light if you wanna find the librarian."

McCoy nods and crosses the library atrium to the door that leads to librarian offices. It's still open and he crosses into the part of the library most people never see. As he expects, Aerie's office is the one open. He leaves her a note, telling her he's looking for her and then heads back out to the atrium and the ancient elevators. He decides to start with the third floor but when the elevator opens, it's pitch black. So he hits the button for the fourth floor, determined to find Aerie.

On the fourth floor, the elevator opens and McCoy steps out onto a darkened floor, save for a faint light at the opposite end of the stacks. He hopes it's Aerie because this place gives him the creeps and he wonders how she can stand to stay here so late, all by herself. As he walks towards the light, no other lights come on and he wonders just how accurate the motion-sensing lights are and whether she'll actually be there when he finally makes it to that end of the floor. Aerie had complained to him over their long weekend that the library budget is a disaster and they don't have money allocated for basic operations – now McCoy realizes exactly what she was talking about. The library building is run-down and if the lights don't even work, no wonder Aerie is so bent out of shape about Director Harrison. How does the man not advocate more passionately – or at all – for the department he's in charge of? McCoy knows from conversations with Jim that the library director tells Kirk everything is going great and has even offered to slash the library budget on several occasions to give money to other departments. McCoy doesn't get it. And he really doesn't like walking around this place in near-darkness. He hopes she's there as he approaches the other end of the floor.

Sure enough, she is, standing next to a library stool, reading a book of some sort. Her pencil skirt hugs her in all the right places and between the skirt, the cardigan which emphasizes her chest just so, her reading glasses, and the loose chignon her hair is in, she looks like a Vargas pin-up girl come to life. As he gets closer, he can see she has her ear buds in which explains why she hasn't said anything yet in response to his greeting. He doesn't want to scare her but she's so into whatever it is she's reading that she doesn't see him wave his arms to get her attention. Once he's less than a meter away, she finally looks up and the sight of someone else so close to her causes her to jump and cry out.

Aerie knows she's not the most graceful person in the world. Normally, she mitigates her clumsiness by ensuring there's nothing around her she might fall over or run into but she wasn't expecting to see anyone else here tonight so when she notices a man walking towards her, she jumps and that sends her tripping into the step stool which then leads to her hitting the stacks behind her with her back. Once she realizes the man coming towards her is Len, she's even more embarrassed. She pulls her earbuds out, annoyed with herself, with him, with the whole situation.

"What are you doing here?" she asks, trying not to hiss at him but her back is sore and so is her pride. He crosses his arms and fixes a hard eye on her.

"Well, you haven't been very easy to talk to lately so I swung by here on my way home to see if you were around," he replies tightly.

Aerie sighs. "I'm sorry," she murmurs. "I didn't know how to tell you…"

"Tell me what?" he prompts her.

"Look, Len. This past weekend was amazing. But I'm planning to move away soon…" she flounders, not expecting to have this conversation so soon.

"You told me you wanted to move over the weekend. I thought we agreed to take whatever changes might come as they happened," McCoy replies. He doesn't want to fight with her – if Aerie doesn't want him, so be it. But he's not gonna let her use excuses to avoid just telling him the truth. If she really doesn't want to date him, he wants to hear the real reasons from her.

Aerie looks at him with a certain desperation in her eyes and, if he weren't so sure he was the cause of her distress, he'd reach out and attempt to comfort her.

"I know," she says. "I know we agreed to see where this was going. But…I just think it might be better if we don't pursue anything right now."

"Why?" he asks her and he doesn't mean for the question to sound so harsh but at the same time, what the fuck? "What changed from the time I left your house Sunday to now?"

Aerie takes a breath.

"Nothing changed," she attempts to assure him but he isn't having it.

"Really?" he cuts in. "Because when I left, we agreed to get together this week for lunch at some point but every time I've tried to contact you, you've avoided me. I'd say that's a pretty big change from the weekend."

"I can't do this," she finally cries out in frustration. "I like you too much and I know what's gonna happen. We'll date and it'll be great at first but then, the longer we're together, the more problems will arise and either you'll realize I'm not worth it or I'll realize you're not worth it and I don't want to do that again!"

McCoy studies her face as she closes her eyes and wipes away a tear that escaped as she was speaking.

"So that's it," he says softly. "You're convinced we're over before we really get started."

McCoy feels foolish. He shouldn't have come to see her – he can't help but feel like a jerk right now. She's already told him she doesn't like unexpected meetings so what did he do? Came on over and surprised her. And now he's paying the price for that. Maybe, with more time, she'd come around. But he doubts it. He just has to accept that this isn't going where he hoped it would. His humiliation is now tinged with sadness and regret and perhaps even a bit of anger.

"I'm so sorry," Aerie murmurs, because the pain she sees in his hazel eyes is almost enough to make her reconsider her stance. But she knows. He might be a little upset after this but it'll be so much better than if they keep dating for months, maybe longer.

"I'm sorry too," he says, bitterness seeping into his voice. He takes a breath and re-centers himself, not wanting to say something he'll regret. "Sorry I scared you," he mutters, his face flushed.

"It's okay," she tries to assure him. "I'm a klutz – always have been."

"I shouldn't have snuck in like that. Anyway, take care of yourself, okay?" All Leonard wants is to get away from this place. He's upset her, he's upset himself – he just wants to go home and forget he ever met this blue-haired beauty who's so convinced she'll destroy her next relationship that she can't let her guard down. Or maybe she's convinced he'll destroy the relationship. Hell, that's what he gets for telling her so much about his life this past weekend.

McCoy turns and walks away from her and Aerie doesn't feel any of the relief she anticipated. Instead, she feels even more like a garbage human being. Part of her wants to catch up to him and…what? Tell him she wants to give this a try after all? Just hold him one last time? Neither option seems like a good idea so she stays there, watching as he exits the stacks. She can't hear his footfalls on the carpeting but she hears the elevator on the other end of the floor open, then close, and she hangs her head. He's gone now.

"Motherfucker," Aerie swears at herself. "You just couldn't tell him like a normal human being? You had to make him come find you and then ruin his night?" Her thoughts are dark and filled with self-loathing as she sets her glasses on her forehead and wipes her eyes aggressively to stop the tears that want to tumble down her face. She needs to get her work done so she can go home, bury herself in her bed, and forget how awful she feels right now.

* * *

"What if I was wrong?" Aerie asks, as she steals a French fry from Nyota.

"About what?" Nyota asks, swatting her hand away from her fries. "You gotta be more specific because I'm pretty sure there are a lot of things you've been wrong about," she adds sardonically.

Aerie doesn't even argue though she does give her friend a withering look. Until she remembers what she's talking about. No need to antagonize Ny when she's about to ask the woman to help her.

"I'm talking about Len. What if I was wrong to end things so quickly?"

"What if?" Ny scoffs with an arched eyebrow. "There's no question – you were definitely wrong about that."

It's been a few weeks since the disastrous conversation between McCoy and Aerie in the stacks and the longer she thinks about it, the more Aerie regrets ending things. In the cold light of being alone once more, Aerie realizes she didn't just put the cart in front of the horse – she put a goddamn caravan of wagons in front of the horse. She wants to reach out to Len but she's afraid he won't want anything to do with her.

"So yeah. I really fucked up," Aerie admits to Nyota. "Do you think…is there a chance…" She can't get the question she's trying to ask to come out right. Luckily, Ny knows exactly what she's asking.

"Honestly," she answers with compassion, "I have no idea where he stands on you. He hasn't mentioned you to me at all since you freaked out on him in the library."

Nyota isn't being insensitive to Aerie's ongoing troubles with mental health when she uses the term 'freak out' to describe Aerie's actions in the week after her weekend slumber party with McCoy. The two women have discussed this several times since and Aerie admitted to Nyota that she forgot about her antidepressants over the weekend. Nyota feels almost 100% certain that Aerie's actions that week were driven by her failure to take her meds when she needed to. So, for her, Aerie's actions are, in fact, a freak out brought on by Aerie's forgotten doses. While Aerie isn't as sure that she can blame her sudden desire to end things on the skipped pills, she sees Nyota's point and isn't offended by Ny's use of 'freak out.' She is, however, concerned about Len's lack of communication with his friends over what happened.

Seeing Aerie's discouraged expression, Nyota rushes to continue. "That's not necessarily a bad thing. He didn't tell me he hates you or never wants to talk to you again – and Len's not exactly subtle about when he's upset, you know."

Aerie looks at Nyota with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"So you're saying I have a chance?" she asks with a small grin.

* * *

To put her plan to woo Leonard into action, Aerie needs to enlist Jim Kirk. She's nervous about doing so, especially with Nyota's voice in her mind, warning her about the young president's lustful ways, but she finds him to be charming without coming on too strong and when she explains her plan to him, his eyes light up and he's all in.

It's a simple enough plan. Jim texts McCoy one evening when the doctor is about to end his shift and asks him if he can meet Jim at the library, to look at Pike's old plans for renovation. McCoy is less than thrilled.

_Are you outta your mind?_

_It's 10pm!_

Yeah, and both of us are still on campus

Come on. Just a quick run-thru?

I'm new to all this shit and I could really use a hand here

Jim watches as the typing bubble appears, then disappears, then reappears on his phone and he knows from how long it's taking, that McCoy has started and deleted several responses, all of which involve either cursing, insulting him, or both.

_Fine. I'll be there in a half hour_

_You owe me_

Meet me on the 6th floor of the library – closed stacks

The elevator will be set to let you in

Jim grins, shoots off a couple of texts to Aerie, and puts his phone in his pocket. He's done his part. The rest is in Aerie's hands.

* * *

Aerie is nervous when she hears the elevator in use. This is it. The thing is ancient and it feels like a lifetime passes before it finally stops on her floor and the doors slowly open. Out walks a very-annoyed looking Len and his features only soften when he sees her and realizes Jim isn't standing next to her.

"Where's Jim?" he asks, still unaware of the bait and switch that's been played on him.

"He's not here," Aerie admits, her stomach in knots. "He helped me get you here."

McCoy stares at her, dumbfounded for a moment as he absorbs her words.

"Why would he do a stupid thing like that?" he asks and she winces. "No, no – I just meant he doesn't have to set up fake meetings. If you want me to stop by, all you have to do is ask."

Aerie's breath hitches in her throat at his words.

"I asked him to help me get you here so I could tell you…" she's rehearsed what she's going to say a billion times in her head, and even in front of her mirror, but now, it's all forgotten and she's not sure how to proceed.

"It's just that…"

"I mean…"

McCoy crosses his arms and gives her a look with one eyebrow cocked. "Just what are you trying to say?" he asks and his voice isn't unkind, but it also lacks the same warmth she's heard in it during their prior meetings.

"I made a mistake," she finally blurts out. "I should never have ended things with you so abruptly. I asked Jim to help me get you here so I could ask your forgiveness….and see if we could give things a second chance…"

McCoy isn't sure how to respond. He sighs and drops his arms and eyebrow down. This is not how he planned for tonight to go. He isn't upset, exactly, but something about the fact that Aerie got Jim to help her, something about how she must have expected that he would agree – it rubs him the wrong way. He hasn't been able to stop thinking about her since their last meeting in the stacks. He dreams about her at night and logically, he knows he should scoop her into his arms right now and take her back. But he's not Spock, with the man's infuriating number of PhDs and penchant for statistics and probabilities. He's a medical doctor, dammit, and he's still licking his wounds. What happens if he agrees and she decides again that she can't do this? Maybe she was right the first time around.

Aerie has been holding her breath, waiting for his response and she's getting lightheaded from the lack of oxygen.

"I'm sorry, darlin'," he says gently. "I…just started seeing someone a couple of weeks ago."

Her face falls. "I didn't…Jim and Ny…no one mentioned it." Aerie's cheeks are blazing. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to waste your time."

McCoy feels like a right ass, just as he should. "I didn't mention it to either of them because…" he shrugs and gestures around them and she gets it. He didn't want them interfering with another attempted relationship.

She wonders who it is. Someone from the medical school? Frankly, she doesn't understand how he ever spends a night alone, to say nothing of the years he remained single after his divorce. While she is objectively happy for him to find someone, inside she's dying that she let the chance to be that someone slip away from her.

"Again," she starts, feeling like a total fool, "I'm so sorry I dragged you out here tonight."

"Please don't apologize," he replies, wanting to tell her he's the one who ought to be apologizing because he's petty and scared of how much he thinks about her and worried that maybe she's been right all along – maybe he doesn't have what she needs in a partner. And he didn't think he'd be confronting all these fears and insecurities when he was taking the elevator to this floor.

"Look, are you leaving?" he asks her, feeling desperate to mitigate the damage he's done in the last five minutes of conversation. "I'll walk to the garage with you."

She gives him a wan smile. "Thanks, but I've got some stuff to finish up here. No need to wait." She's lying – not entirely – there's always something more she can find to work on but the truth is she doesn't think she can make it through a whole awkward walk to the garage. And he seems relieved to be off the hook anyway.

They say awkward goodbyes to one another and then Aerie is alone again. She hangs her head in a mix of embarrassment and regret.


	9. Chapter 9

"You're a fucking liar," Jim says, his cerulean eyes flashing.

"For once, I agree with him," Nyota adds, nodding her head at Jim. "How could you?"

McCoy should've realized he would have to face the music sooner rather than later. Still, he plays it cool.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he mutters as the other two make themselves comfortable in the chairs across from his desk. He's gonna have a word with his secretary after this meeting. No more letting his friends traipse in and out of his office without a heads-up. That shit's ending now.

"You know exactly what he's talking about," Nyota says with narrowed eyes. "You aren't dating anyone right now and you're damn lucky I didn't say that to Aerie when she told me how the other night went down."

McCoy stifles a groan. Fuck. He knows he deserves their recriminations. But at the same time…

"You know, you two need to stop sticking your noses where they aren't welcome," he growls. "For all you know, maybe I am dating someone."

"You're not," Jim snaps and Nyota adds, "Not a chance."

"Fuck you both very much," McCoy replies. "I don't need either of you toying with me and neither does Aerie. Leave the both of us alone and stop playing matchmaker." He directs his last comment at Jim especially.

The friends go at it for a few more minutes before he blessedly gets both of them out of his office. McCoy knows he's lucky to have friends like Jim and Nyota but that doesn't stop him from wanting to strangle them both from time to time. And the fact is, he doesn't need them to make him feel worse about what he did the other night. He already feels awful. He should never have lied to Aerie like that. But he hadn't wanted to hurt her more than she was probably already hurting. It had seemed like the easiest way out of the situation.

* * *

Two months later, Aerie sighs at her desk. She has to send this email and it annoys her to no end. The librarian she assigned McCoy to has just accepted a new job and will be leaving in a few weeks. Until her replacement is found, Aerie is back to being McCoy's liaison. And she needs to tell him because she knows he's been busy with research requests for an upcoming article he wants to author. But she hopes he doesn't think she's trying to hit on him. She's only taking him because her boss insists but she's pretty sure she can't tell him that in an email without sounding like an asshole.

She composes the email and closes her eyes as she hits send.

_Leonard,_

_Sammie has taken a new job and will be leaving us in a few weeks. To ease the transition and ensure that her faculty members are taken care of while we search for her replacement, we have divvied you all up amongst the rest of us. Since I'm familiar with what you've worked on in the past, I'll be taking over as your faculty liaison (lucky you!). I know you're working on a forthcoming article so whatever I can do to assist, don't hesitate to let me know (but give me a heads-up if you're coming over to the library to visit before 8am – for your own safety)._

_Best,_

_Aerie_

Inside, she begs whatever higher forces out there to keep him from reading too much into this. A few minutes later, he replies and her hand is literally shaking as she clicks on the email.

_Aerie,_

_I'm delighted to have you back as my liaison – no early morning meetings, you have my word. It sounds like Sammie has filled you in on what she's been doing for me. Let me know if you have any questions. You can even call if you want – a smart librarian taught me all about the phone system a while back._

_Thanks,_

_Len_

She's relieved as she reads over his words. He doesn't seem to be upset or uncomfortable with her coming back in to assist him. Whether that's because he's missed her or because he's so happy in his new relationship that he doesn't think of her in a romantic light anymore is something she's just not gonna worry about right now.

Leonard reads Aerie's email to him once more and wonders if he's ever agonized over an email response more than the one he just sent Aerie. Should he have said 'delighted'? It's true – he really is pleased to have her as his liaison again. But will she think he's being sarcastic? What if she doesn't even want to help him? What if she's just doing it because no one else can? He shakes his head to get all the doubts out and gets up from his desk. He's got a bunch of residents to oversee and a hospital to keep running. No time for swooning like a schoolgirl just because he got an email from a woman he can't get out of his head no matter how hard he tries.

* * *

It's the end of the semester for the undergrad campus and most of the graduate programs. Things work a little differently in the medical school but McCoy can see something like a light at the end of the tunnel ahead of him and it's a beautiful day. On his way across campus to meet with Jim about the new residency spots he's grudgingly agreed to, McCoy sees a familiar blue ponytail amongst the crowd at the food trucks. Before he can stop himself, he's next to her and gives her arm a bump with his elbow to get her attention.

"Hey," Aerie replies when she sees him, her eyes wide and a smile spreading across her face.

"How's it goin'?" he asks her, feeling more at ease now that he can see she's happy to see him. He should know better than to surprise her at this point but he supposes it's not so disconcerting to run into a familiar face at the food trucks.

"Good, good. What brings you over here?" she asks and before he can answer, she continues. "Meeting with Jim?"

He chuckles. "You know me too well."

"Do you have time for lunch?" she asks as she nods at the trucks and he's about to tell her, sadly, that he doesn't when his phone vibrates and he pulls it out to see that Jim has pushed their meeting back an hour.

"Looks like I do now," he says in annoyance before giving her a half-grin.

"What're we eating today?" he asks as he moves forward in the line with her.

"Well, this line is the mac-n-cheese truck. But honestly? I think I want to get something from the poutine truck – I can't make up my mind," Aerie replies.

He gives her a look. "Not going for the healthy choices, huh?"

She levels a look right back at him. "Look, I run every morning so I can eat."

He laughs. "How 'bout this then? I'll get mac-n-cheese, you get poutine, and we'll share?"

She looks at him like he's just figured out world peace. "That's the most wonderful thing you've ever said," she gushes and he laughs because he's pretty sure he can think of at least five other things he whispered in her ear during their brief courtship that were better but he's not going to contradict her when she looks so happy.

With food in hand, they grab the same bench they sat on the first time they had lunch at the trucks, all those months ago. This time, they're sharing meals and while there's still a slight current of tension between them over their unsuccessful attempts to date, they've had a couple of months of working together on the research for his latest article to get them acclimated to their new relationship as work colleagues and friends.

"You know," she says between bites of poutine and mac-n-cheese, "Normally I hate sharing food with a man because you all eat so fast and it's stressful keeping up with you – sharing basically means you get to eat almost two meals and I get part of a meal. But you're really good at this whole sharing thing."

He smirks at her. "It helps that all I can think about is how clogged my arteries are gonna be if I scarf this all down."

She rolls her eyes. "Doctors take all the fun out of eating delicious, cheesy goodness."

"Sorry, darlin'," he says with a grin that indicates just how little sorrow he's actually feeling and she can't help but smile back at him because dammit, he's so fucking handsome. Aerie feels a little pang inside as she once again silently berates herself for letting him slip through her fingers.

Neither will admit it to themselves, let alone each other, but they both look for reasons to spend time with one another. The article has been a convenient excuse to call one another frequently and make stops by one another's offices, in the name of dropping off research or asking for clarification on certain findings. And this isn't the first time this month they've met for lunch. Aerie even took Nyota up on a recent offer to go out for drinks with the crew and Ny spent the whole night making eyes with Jim as the two of them watched Aerie and Len interact. Still, both Aerie and Len are too scared to make the next step and go out on a proper date together.

Aerie knows Len isn't seeing anyone right now. What she doesn't realize still is that he was never seeing someone. So she wavers between worry that he's still upset from his latest ill-fated relationship and nervousness that he'll turn her down anyway because they've already tried dating once and look how that turned out. Meanwhile, Len isn't exactly sure Nyota hasn't spilled the beans to Aerie about his lie and he's worried that her occasional aloofness is a result of anger over being lied to. He thinks if he tries to ask her out again, he may get an earful from her. And both of them are still unsure they have what the other wants or needs. It's enough for Ny and Jim to want to bang their heads against the wall in frustration. They can see how perfect the two are for one another – why can't Len and Aerie see it too? But for now, Jim and Nyota try to pacify themselves with the fact that it's enough to see they're friends with one another. Friends is good. They can work with friendship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Sorry I'm so late with this chapter. I've been traveling internationally for work and sometimes it's just not possible to juggle everything. Anyway, here you go. I'm retooling the final chapter of this first AU installment and I'll try to get it up here later this week. I'm super excited because next week, I'm gonna start posting a new, longer work back in the Star Trek universe - it involves Klingons and I'm pretty excited to share it with you all! But we'll come back around to the next installments of this story too at some point - no worries! I haven't run out of ideas yet! Thanks so much for reading - your comments and kudos are like music to my ears!


	10. Chapter 10

McCoy wakes up in a bed he doesn't immediately recognize. He's got a headache that could kill a horse and he's shaking, despite being under several covers. As he attempts to sit up, a wave of dizziness dissuades him and he collapses back down on the pillow behind his head. He feels like he has to concentrate on his breathing or he'll stop. His eye-hand coordination is shot to hell and he can feel his heart palpitating which is just one of many very disconcerting things about his current situation. Where the hell is he and why can't he remember anything about the night before? He takes a look around the room – something about it is vaguely familiar but he can't quite place it. Between his mind working hard to determine his symptoms and his sense of having been in this place before, McCoy is on edge.

He racks his mind trying to figure out what he did the night before and the only thing he can remember is heading down to the Crypts, the local basement bar just next to campus, for a couple of drinks with some co-workers from the hospital – not an uncommon Friday night activity for him on the weekends he doesn't have Joanna. Everything else is a blank and he's getting very nervous because no matter how drunk he's gotten in the past, McCoy has never blacked out before. And he knows a thing or two about heavy drinking – there have been a couple of times, like just after his father's death and then again after the divorce, when McCoy has attempted to pickle his liver in alcohol. But he's always remembered his actions the next day, for better or worse. And he's never awakened in an unfamiliar place. His clothes are still on and they aren't particularly dirty, though they're a little worse for the wear, which is an apt description for how he feels at the moment. He tries getting up again and has a bit more success this time. He grabs his phone from where it's laying on the night table next to the bed and scrolls through the texts as he pads across the floor and opens the door to look down the hallway of this unknown place. The sight of a somewhat familiar hallway – at least one he's been down once before – calms him. He's at Aerie's house. And this is one of the guest rooms. The last time he was in this room, Aerie was with him; they were naked and more focused on each other than the surroundings. He would grin at the memory if every part of his face didn't hurt so much. But how did he get here?

The texts explain a little more. He has no recollection of them, even after reading them but he's starting to understand why.

_Soemthing is wierd right nwo_

He cringes because his spelling is never that bad. An idea of what might have happened is starting to dawn on him and it fills him with a feeling he's never experienced.

What's wrong?

_No t sure_

_Excited_

_And wooozy_

_But iv only hade one drik_

Where are you?

_Crypts_

Don't leave

I'll be right there

_Never feel like this before_

The texts end there but he searches his calls and realizes Aerie called him and was on the phone with him (in whatever state he might have been in) for about 15 minutes – about as long as it would have taken for her to leave the library, cross campus, and come get him.

"Aerie?" he calls out tentatively as he walks down the hallway. He doesn't know exactly what happened to him the night before but whatever unease he's feeling is mitigated by the fact that he's here in her home. Somehow, she found him last night and got him to safety.

A door at the end of the hallway opens and she advances to him quickly.

"You're awake," she says with relief and then the concern in her eyes does something to his insides because he realizes she is as unsure about what happened to him as he is. "Do you remember anything from last night?"

He shakes his head and instantly regrets the action as pain rolls through his head. "I looked through my texts and I don't remember sending any of them."

"You were almost incoherent when I got there. The bartender said she was worried about you – you were acting manic for a brief time and it's not like you to be so happy," Aerie pauses for a moment and cracks a smile at McCoy which he attempts to return. Even the bartender at one of his favorite bars knows he's a perpetual grump and he's not sure if he should be proud of that or ashamed. But before either of them can make a joke, Aerie gets serious again.

"She kept you there at the bar till I showed up, even after you calmed down. I had the chance to talk to her before I got there because you stopped responding during our call. She said it was clear you had more than alcohol in your system though she didn't have any reason to suspect your friends because she sees you there enough to know you're normally a pretty quiet group."

McCoy thinks back to what he can remember. He'd gone to the Crypts with good friends like Christine Chapel and Geoff M'Benga and some of the senior nurses – if, as he suspected, he'd been drugged, why had he been alone at the bar? Where had the others gone and why would they have left him in such a state? He doesn't realize he's been thinking out loud till Aerie responds to what he's been saying.

"Wait, you were roofied?" she asks in surprise. She immediately feels bad for sounding so shocked. Surely men can be roofied as easily as women, right? It's just strange to see someone like McCoy suffering from something she and most of her female friends worry over every time they go out.

McCoy grimaces as she looks him over. "No one gets dosed with an actual roofie anymore," he explains as she leads him down the stairs. "Only one in a hundred victims who go for blood work test positive for rohypnol. These days, the drugs are primarily GHB – liquid Ecstasy, Zolpidem – Ambien, scopolamine, and a few lesser-known benzodiazepines, like temazepam or midazolam."

She listens as he talks, not really understanding what the drugs are but realizing that he knows what he's talking about and that's good enough for her.

"How do you feel?" she asks him as she motions for him to sit at the kitchen table. He winces at the bright light streaming in the windows and she adjusts the shades in response.

"I feel like hell," McCoy admits. "Worse than any hangover I've ever had. Mind if I?" He gestures to a mirror on the wall and she nods silently, allowing him to take a moment to examine himself in it. He asks her if she has something like a penlight and she finds one in a drawer somewhere in the kitchen.

"Hold it to my eyes," he instructs her softly. "You're looking for my pupils to constrict. If I'm right, they won't constrict as quickly as they should."

"How quickly should they constrict?" she asks and he tells her, noting how seriously she's listening to him. She's calm – at least on the outside. She's radiating a calm he wishes he could feel and he's grateful he reached out to her, of all the people he could have texted because she feels like an anchor keeping him tethered to reality at the moment.

She holds the penlight to his left eye, then his right eye, telling him what he already knows – his eyes aren't constricting from the light and the drug is still in his system. When he's done examining himself with her help, Aerie hands McCoy a glass of water. He sits down and takes a long sip then looks at her in the eyes, ready to share his "diagnosis."

"Without taking blood samples and running tests – which I should get done at some point today – my best guess is someone slipped GHB in my drink at some point."

"Did you leave it unattended at any point?" She asks him, her eyes searching his.

McCoy tries to think back but everything after M'Benga brought drinks back to their table is a blur. He shakes his head but it hurts still and doing so makes him audibly gasp.

"I can't remember anything. Geoff brought the drinks to the table and that's all I remember."

"How well do you know Geoff?" Aerie asks and he's surprised by the edge in her voice.

"Pretty well," he replies. "He's been at the hospital for almost 10 years. I can't see him…" McCoy doesn't finish the sentence because he really cannot fathom a situation in which M'Benga – or anyone else he was with – would drug him.

"I don't know what to think," McCoy grumbles. "It's clear I was incapacitated. But that doesn't mean my friends had anything to do with it." He doesn't mean to snap at her but he's taking in a lot at the moment and somehow, imagining his friends complicit in what's happened to him is a bridge too far.

"I'm sorry," Aerie finally says. "I assumed the worst of your friends when I showed up and you were alone – that was unfair of me."

"It's okay. I'm sorry I made you come all the way over to pick me up. Not sure why I didn't just leave with everyone else."

Aerie's face softens and she comes over to him, cupping his face in her hands.

"It's okay," she says softly. "I didn't mind at all. You can always reach out if you need something from me."

He nods, slowly, just once, because it hurts to move his head too much. This whole situation feels bizarre but he knows he would be saying the exact same thing to her if their roles were reversed and something about the feel of her hands on his cheeks is soothing in a way that no medication could be.

"Thank you," he breathes and he hopes she realizes how very grateful he is that she got his texts and took them seriously.

"Of course," she replies. "I'll always be there for you if you need me." Her voice is husky and if he didn't feel like his head was about to cave in, to say nothing of the sense of violation sweeping over him, he'd almost consider it a romantic moment.

But instead, he stands up and moves into the family room.

"Do you mind if I lie down?" he asks her and she nods as he sinks down to the sectional and curls up on it. He's long past worrying about looking vulnerable in front of her and gives a grateful grunt when she covers him with a blanket and lets him sleep a couple of hours longer.

When he wakes again, he tells her he wants to go to the hospital and she agrees to drive him there – she explains that they ended up at her place because he was practically unconscious when she arrived at the bar and she hadn't wanted to walk him back across campus to his place. In truth, she had also been worried about going through his pockets to find his keys – it seemed like a step too far to grope him while he was incoherent, even if she was just looking for keys. So she'd brought him back here. He doesn't mind in the least now that he knows he's in good hands.

Aerie takes McCoy to the hospital to get bloodwork done and she stays by his side the whole time, despite his insistence that she doesn't have to give up her Saturday to this. She's still there afterwards, when he speaks with the police about what happened the night before. From the hospital, she drives him back to his house.

"I know you've had a long day," she tells him as she walks him to the door of his house. "I'm sorry –"

"Please don't apologize," McCoy interrupts. "It was a crappy way to spend a Saturday but I needed to do it and having you with me made it bearable." He blushes as he realizes the way his words sound – especially because he means exactly what he hopes she doesn't infer. In an effort to keep her from dwelling on the underlying meaning, he continues, speaking rapidly. "Besides, I had to report what happened. What would happen if I didn't report it and the same thing happened to someone else? Maybe now the police will be on the lookout."

* * *

McCoy doesn't feel fully recovered for a couple of days and Aerie is fastidious about checking on him. When he gets to work on Monday, he asks Chapel and M'Benga why they left him and they tell him he was insistent that they take off, assuring them he was fine. They tell him he became very happy and animated for a brief time which was strange but certainly not unwelcome. It was only as they were leaving that he started to act in a way that struck them as troubling but even then, he assured them he was fine and a friend was on her way to pick him up. They knew the bartender had her eye on McCoy and they didn't want to interrupt a potential romantic liaison so they left. They're horrified when he tells them he was drugged. Christine is practically in tears and McCoy's feeling that his friends couldn't have been the ones to drug him is confirmed. They tell him he left the table once to use the bathroom but they were all there so they don't see how someone could have slipped something into his drink without them knowing. They each seem as perplexed and worried by the situation as he is.

Aerie comes by to go to lunch with him on Monday and he's grateful for her companionship. They talk about Friday night's events, now that he has more information from his co-workers, but neither of them is any closer to knowing who drugged him. Aerie takes McCoy's word for it that the other doctors and nurses aren't suspects.

As awful as the experience is, something solidifies between Aerie and McCoy. McCoy is relieved to know he didn't experience any greater harm besides being drugged and he knows Aerie is partially to thank for that. Aerie would prefer to not imagine what might have happened if he hadn't texted her and she vows to put aside her bullshit insecurities because she can't forget how her heart tightened when she found him in the bar, so pliant and willing to do whatever anyone told him. She's relieved he felt comfortable enough to text her, though she realizes he may have done so because she was the closest person, location-wise, he could think of (and of course she was there late at the library that night – what that says about her own social life is something she'd rather not deal with). Whatever his reasons, she wants to make sure he always feels like he can come to her. McCoy has a new appreciation for what it's like to be a woman. Among his close friends, there's no blatant recrimination over what happened but there is a weirdness in some of his interactions. Jim doesn't seem to know exactly what to say when McCoy tells him about the drugging and if it weren't himself, McCoy supposes he's be interested in observing the shift in dynamic that occurs because it's a man who's been drugged and not a woman. But because it's him, he doesn't have the luxury of looking at things from a neutral standpoint and it bothers him to see doubt and even a faint trace of blame in the eyes of his friends when he explains what happened.

The druggings in bars around campus continue, at a rate that's alarming enough for the media to start reporting on it. Even the crew alters their behavior, no longer drinking out at bars around campus but choosing to meet at one another's houses or at bars and restaurants in other neighborhoods. Jim is beside himself as he receives more and more calls and complaints from parents and students, asking what the university is going to do to keep its students safe. He's lucky this is happening over summer break and not during the school year but even during the slow time of the summer, he feels the pressure to take serious action – not just because of the students and their families but also because the board is breathing down his neck. Jim is a good university president but he's also still green in a lot of ways and that is no more evident than in a crisis like the campus druggings, the name they've been given by the press. Jim hates it because the druggings don't happen on campus and, despite the fact that a good number have gone unreported, the ones that have been reported have predominantly been adults in their mid 20s to late 30s – not college kids. Even more interesting is that men are equally susceptible to being drugged as women.

At a dinner with the crew a month later, Jim is telling the rest of the group about the safety measures he's put in place to get ready for the new school year. Aerie is with them, as she frequently these days, and she's sitting between Len and Ny.

"Jim, I gotta say, I'm…impressed," Nyota says with a touch of disbelief that she's giving the blond-haired, blue-eyed lothario a compliment but the fact is, since becoming president, he's toned his shtick down significantly and Nyota isn't the only one at the table who thinks he's admirably handling the drugging situation.

"Aye, lad, you've done a right fine job handling this broo-haha," Scotty agrees.

Even the normally stoic Dean Spock contributes a bit of praise.

"Indeed, Jim. I commend you. You have handled a most illogical situation with the right mix of rationality and emotion."

Jim gives Spock an appreciative nod of his head, knowing how infrequently the man gives compliments. Dean Spock is perhaps the person in the group that Ny and Aerie discuss most when it's just the two of them. He is an enigma. No one really knows where he's from – they know he has traveled extensively as the son of a diplomat, though it is unclear which country his father represents. Dean Spock does not invite questions into his personal life. Even something as innocuous as his first name is shrouded in mystery. He claims it is difficult to pronounce and when Aerie attempts to call him out on that (because she knows a thing or ten about unpronounceable names), he tells her his full name quickly and the only part she recognizes is Spock. But the man seems fine with being referred to with a single name, like Cher but with less fishnets and headdresses. Aerie is initially confused as to why the rest of the group continues to include Spock in their regular outings but as time goes by, she comes to understand that he is as vital a part of the group as any other. Even McCoy's frequent snide comments and arguments with Spock rest on a foundation of genuine respect and friendship, though Aerie is fairly certain that if she points that out to Len, he'll adamantly deny it.

As they discuss the druggings, Aerie feels McCoy tense up next to her and she reaches for his hand under the table. Their fingers intertwine and even after the conversation has moved to other topics, they remain joined. Ny catches a glimpse of their clasped hands and she has to bite the inside of her cheeks to keep from smiling too wide or looking over at Jim because she knows if she makes eye contact with him, she won't be able to keep the secret to herself.

Later, McCoy drives Aerie back to her house and as they stand on the porch, saying their goodbyes, he reaches out to hug her. Aerie leans into his embrace with an eagerness that surprises both of them. For a moment, they are silent, both enjoying the feel of each other in their arms. McCoy shifts slightly so he can make eye contact with Aerie and he knows she'll see it in his eyes – everything he feels for her. But he doesn't care because even if she doesn't reciprocate his desires, they're friends and he has to believe she'll understand how much he values the friendship. He doesn't want to jeopardize it by making an unwelcome advance. But when their eyes meet, he sees that his worries are unfounded. Aerie is looking at him with a similar mix of want and amity.

"Aerie," he says softly and hearing her name from his lips sends a visible shiver through her.

"Oh God, Len," she replies and their faces draw closer, their breath mingling. Neither is paying attention to the humidity or the stillness in the night air. Around them, in the tiny front yard, fireflies flicker, making the air appear to be festooned with Christmas lights but all that heat, beauty, and light pales in comparison to the sparks being generated between Aerie and Leonard.

He leans in and the touch of his lips against hers is so soft, she almost opens her eyes to make sure he's really there. But he is and the press of his lips grows stronger as they pull in closer to one another. Aerie wraps her arms around his neck and McCoy loves that she's his height – he doesn't have to bend down to kiss her, doesn't have to adjust anything besides the tilt of his head as the kiss deepens and they open themselves to one another.

As he holds her close, his lips skimming hers, his tongue playing with hers, McCoy thinks to himself that he'll do whatever it takes to make sure she understands how much he cares about her this time around. He'll be what she needs and he won't walk away again if she gets scared.

This is different than the first time they kissed – being with one another now, after the time apart, feels significant in a way neither can pinpoint and they're both so wrapped up in the sensations they're feeling as they kiss that they're not trying to pin down meanings anyway. All they know is this is serious and they both want it. And that's enough for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stick around to find out what happens with the druggings, whether Aerie and McCoy make a go of things this time around, and what else is happening with the rest of the crew. I'll update this after I get my next non-AU story up and going. Thanks, as always, for reading and letting me know what you think! LLAP.


End file.
